Boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw sees profits soar

Boutique investment bank Robey Warshaw’s role advising on some of last year’s biggest deals helped almost double profits at the St James’s firm.

The upstart company, founded by veteran bankers Sir Simon Robey and Simon Warshaw in 2013, increased turnover to £43.3 million from £23.9 million for the year to March 31 2016.

The three partners at the firm — Robey, Warshaw and chief operating officer Philip Apostolides — will split £36.6 million in profits, an 88% increase on last year.

The unnamed highest-paid got £18.2 million. Robey Warshaw prospered in 2015 thanks to its role in some of the year’s largest deals, including BG Group’s £47 billion sale to Shell and AB InBev’s merger with SABMiller.

Robey, formerly of Morgan Stanley, and Warshaw, ex-UBS, are two of the City’s best-connected bankers and have stolen a march on larger rivals.

This year is also shaping up well — the firm worked on SoftBank’s takeover of ARM and National Grid’s gas pipeline sell-off.