How much am I worth? Managing director, European corporate finance and M&A

A panel of specialist headhunters give their assessment of typical London pay packages: managing director, European corporate finance and M&A - salary 100,000 - 150,000; bonus can be 400% for top-performing staff, maybe nothing for underperformers

One almost has to pity Morrisons, the supermarket group that thought it could quietly agree a gentlemanly takeover of Safeway. A dearth of recent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity guaranteed that its rivals' financial advisors - at the very least - would not let them get away with it.

Many have been so inactive that the very term 'M&A' was becoming of almost historic interest, like 'bull market' or 'dot-com fever'. Now Wal-Mart/Asda, Sainsbury, Tesco and just about everybody else is in the ring, it almost feels like the good old days again.

Except, not really. For senior corporate finance and M&A folk, the Safeway battle is an oasis, but it is the only one. Last year was dreadful for the M&A community: by its end, some 15% of MDs had lost their jobs according to headhunters, while the pressure on those remaining showed no signs of relenting.

This year does not look much better, given the new depths being plumbed by the FTSE: indeed, the only silver lining is that last year's swathe of redundancies hasleft little fat to cut.

'The downturn has exposed a number of MDs who had fallen into a comfort zone at bulge bracket institutions based on the fees they generated in the relatively easy market of the late 90s boom,' said James Dodson, a corporate finance specialist at Longbridge Associates.

He said the key to survival in this job market is relationships. Those with the best contacts - and of course, the technical knowledge, MBA, professional qualification and 10 years of experience that are just about pre-requisites - are best positioned to live through the downturn.

They are also the only ones likely to get a meaningful bonus. With packages linked carefully to performance, most managing directors can now expect a total of between between 160,000 and 580,000 depending on revenue generation. A few high fliers will get more.

Chris Haynes, a consultant at Alexander Mann Global Markets, believes high-flying managing directors in corporate finance and M&A are getting 2002 bonuses of 400% or so, while some others are receiving little or nothing.

'As the deal flow has failed to materialise, we have seen a rise in the number of MDs let go - particularly in the last two quarters, an indication of banks cutting into the muscle,' he said.

So what is the outlook? Remuneration is expected to remain broadly flat with M&A teams fighting over whatever business there is. Dodson pointed out that the Safeway saga has shown the value of relationship banking at the most senior levels, with far from obvious banks - such as ABN Amro - being chosen as advisors over better known M&A institutions.

'The most high profile deal of 2003 so far does not read like a Who's Who of investment banking, an indicator that the lion's share of transactions this year will not be dominated by the same two or three lead advisors,' he said.

Figures and commentary provided by Alexander Mann Global Markets and Longbridge Associates.