Back in June, when the political career of Eric Cantor came to a sudden, stunning end at the hands of an unknown “tea-partier”, we commented that the biggest losers from Cantor’s ignoble fall from Congressional grace were his biggest donors. As showed back then, these were as follows:
Less than three months later, their loss is Cantor’s gain, who after a long auction process has finally, and very expectedly, sold himself off to the highest bidder which as the WSJ reported overnight was none other than boutique M&A advisory firm, Moelis & Co. Per the WSJ, “Mr. Cantor, 51 years old, will be a vice chairman and board member at the firm, effective this week, he and Moelis founder Ken Moelis said in a joint interview on Monday.
At Moelis, Mr. Cantor will help the firm, which was formed in 2007 and has offices overseas, compete for business and advise corporate and investor clients on takeovers and other deals.
Mr. Moelis said he is hiring Mr. Cantor for his “judgment and experience” and ability to open doors—and not just for help navigating regulatory and political waters in Washington. Still, expertise in such matters is likely to be valuable given how heavily they can weigh on the minds of corporate executives contemplating deals.
“I have no need for a political figurehead,” Mr. Moelis said. “What I want is a partner.”
That surely has to be tied for one of the funniest lines of the day.
The rest of the story is well-known, and was extensively covered here previously: “Mr. Cantor has long been seen as a liaison of sorts between the GOP and Wall Street, which also has been a big campaign contributor. Since 2012, he has raised nearly $1.4 million from financial firms and their employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the most of any industry. Big donors to the former congressman include investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP.
During his congressional tenure, Mr. Cantor cultivated close ties with the heads of several large companies, including in the financial sector.
Moelis & Co. is coming of age as more mergers-and-acquisitions business is migrating away from larger firms such as UBS AG, where Mr. Moelis was an executive, and toward a newer crop of smaller investment banks that pitch themselves as independent of the conflicts of interest that can arise at larger institutions competing in multiple lines of business.
Mr. Moelis took his firm public in April, and in a sign of investors’ enthusiasm for the boutique model, its shares have risen nearly 40% since then, giving it a market value of nearly $2 billion.
Messrs. Moelis and Cantor, who have known each other for more than three years, began discussing the possibility of working together shortly before July Fourth, Mr. Cantor said. They were having brunch with their wives in Los Angeles and Mr. Moelis, also a Republican, was giving Mr. Cantor career advice when it occurred to him that the two should work together.
The talks intensified in late July, said Mr. Cantor, who noted that he held discussions about joining several other organizations—on Wall Street and off—though none as serious as those with Moelis.
Mr. Cantor, who will continue to live in Virginia, will open a new office for the firm in Washington, in addition to having an office at the company’s headquarters in New York City. His compensation wasn’t immediately known.
The final question – how much:
Group LP has agreed to pay Mr. Cantor an annual base salary of $400,000. Group LP has also agreed to pay Mr. Cantor an initial cash amount of $400,000 and grant Mr. Cantor $1,000,000 in initial restricted stock units (“RSUs”), based on the average closing price of the Company’s common stock on the five trading days prior to his start date. The initial RSUs will generally vest in equal installments on each of the third, fourth and fifth anniversaries of his start date. For calendar year 2015, Group LP has agreed to pay Mr. Cantor minimum incentive compensation of $1,200,000 in cash and $400,000 in incentive RSUs, payable in equal quarterly installments. The incentive RSUs will generally have the same vesting schedule as incentive RSUs granted to Group LP’s other Managing Directors.
And now sit back and wait as one after another Wall Street firm, primarily those which had invested millions in Cantor over the years, upgrades Moelis to “Strong Buy”
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/1rd0YY3 Tyler Durden