Ex-JP Morgan bankers share in $50m sale

Two former JP Morgan bankers are set to share more than $50m (€39m) by selling their boutique months after they launched it to Evercore Partners, the US advisory firm that floated in New York last week.

Bernard Taylor, former vice-chairman of JP Morgan in Europe and Julian Oakley, a managing director in mergers and acquisitions, sold their Braveheart boutique to Evercore at the end of last month, the day before it opened for business.

Evercore paid $24m in the form of 1.2 million shares for the business and will pay up to another 1.2 million shares over the next seven years, according to the adviser's prospectus. Taylor and Oakley will share up to $3m in a cash earn out on top of their salaries and bonuses. Evercore shares closed at $24.85 on their first day of trading on Friday, valuing the first payment to Braveheart at $29.4m, which is effectively a golden hello.

New boutiques, such as Perella Weinberg, are rumoured to have offered big upfront and guaranteed payments to bankers, including Philip Yates from Merrill Lynch and Paulo Pereira from Morgan Stanley, to persuade them to leave their bulge-bracket employers.

Taylor became a director at Braveheart on March 22 and Oakley joined two weeks before the sale. In April, Braveheart signed a co-operation agreement with Evercore to co-operate on European M&A. According to filings with the UK's Companies House, Taylor owns just under 80% and Oakley just over 20%.

Taylor, who worked at Barings and Flemings before it was bought by Chase Manhattan, had been vice-chairman at JP Morgan in Europe since it merged with Chase in 2000. One former colleague said: "This is classic Bernard. He is a great dealmaker and has always cut good deals for himself."

Evercore and Braveheart declined to comment. Meanwhile, Evercore has appointed Phillippe Camus, vice-chairman of French industrial group Lagardère as a managing director in its investment management division.