Simon Robey and Sir Simon Robertson make first hires for new boutique

Robertson Robey Associates, the London-based M&A boutique founded this month by the union of Simon Robey, the former chairman of global M&A at Morgan Stanley, with Sir Simon Robertson, the chairman of Rolls Royce, has made its first hires. Unsurprisingly, one of them comes from Morgan Stanley.

The two new recruits, both of whom have joined in recent weeks according to the Financial Services Authority Register, are Philip Apostolides and Michael Marks.

Apostolides spent five years at Morgan Stanley in London and was previously an MD in the financial sponsors group. Marks, an Oxford Philosophy Politics and Economics (PPE) graduate and former visiting scholar at Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was previously an analyst with Rothschild in London and is understood to have joined Robertson Robey in an analyst position. According to people close to the situation, Robertson Robey is also understood to be close to finalising a second analyst hire which has not yet been made public.

The firm did not respond to a request for comment.

Headhunters say Zaoui Capital, the boutique firm founded by Michael and Yoel Zaoui, both previously senior M&A bankers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs (Yoel was former global head of M&A at Goldman), is also hiring a couple of junior people and has drawn up a short list of its intended recruits.

Ex-RBS M&A bankers may be interested in getting in touch. The Financial Times reports today that efforts by John McIntyre, the former head of RBS's M&A business to spin the business out as an advisory firm, have come to nothing. RBS's M&A operation failed to attract a buyer and is being wound down, with 40 M&A bankers being made redundant.