Robert Jeffe, chairman of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.'s corporate advisory group for the Americas, took a stroll down memory lane when advising United Technologies Corp. on its $1.82 billion purchase of General Electric Co.'s security division, announced Nov. 12.
Jeffe, who joined Deutsche colleagues Paul Stefanick, Charlie Dupree, Greg Starkins and David Noah
on the assignment, led GE's corporate development team when the
conglomerate was building its security unit. Jeffe was hired away from Credit Suisse Group by GE chief executive Jeff Immelt in 2001, leaving for Deutsche in 2004.
GE was an active buyer during those years, including three deals
worth a combined $3 billion that formed the foundation of the security
business sold to UTC. Jeffe in an interview in late 2004 recalled
Immelt telling him GE would be a whirlwind of M&A activity for a
few years and then slow down. When that slowdown happened, Jeffe went
back to Wall Street.
General Electric in the years since has been digesting what it
bought and adjusting its priorities. The company over the summer hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc.
to shop the security unit, which GE admitted when the deal was
announced would have required "significant investment" -- and probably
more acquisitions -- if it was to remain a standalone business.
Neither UTC, which analysts tagged as an early favorite for the GE
business, nor Deutsche representatives would talk about the deal, but
according to sources who worked on it, Jeffe's past did little to
influence the outcome.
These sources say an internal United Technologies team working under Peter Friedman,
the company's director of corporate strategy and development, handled
most of the negotiations, with Jeffe and Deutsche Bank coming in late
to analyze the proposed deal for the buyer's board.
Joining Deutsche Bank in advising UTC was a Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz team led by partners Martin Lipton (pictured), Joshua R. Cammaker, Jeremy L. Goldstein and Eiko T. Stange and associates Ronald C. Chen, Shaun J. Mathew, Joshua M. Miller, Christina Cheng and Vincent G. Kalafat. GE's internal deal team, which included Duncan O'Brien Jr. and Shaunna Peterson, was assisted by Eduardo Cruz, Brian Link, Chad Hoeft and Carl Torrillo at Citi, and Alex Lynch and Eric Stein from J.P. Morgan Chase.
An Allen & Overy LLP team including partners Eric Shube, Henry Morgenbesser, Ken Rivlin and Colleen Keck and associates Kimberlee Streif, Lara Anthony, Katya Grechukina, Christina Lee, Maria Christopher, Laurie Emmer and Helen Kim provided legal counsel to GE.
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