© Reuters. Signage is seen at the JPMorgan Chase & Co. New York Head Quarters in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 30, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
By Anirban Sen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -JPMorgan Chase & Co on Thursday named Anu Aiyengar as the sole head of its global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) franchise after co-head Dirk Albersmeier stepped down from the role, cementing her status as the only female executive leading the franchise at a major Wall Street bank.
The move was announced in an internal memo sent out by JPMorgan (NYSE:)’s two global co-heads of investment banking, James Casey and Viswas Raghavan. The contents of the memo were confirmed by a JPMorgan spokeswoman.
Albersmeier will take on a new “wholly client and transaction-focused role” within JPMorgan, according to the memo.
“Going forward, Anu will be the sole head of our global M&A business and Dirk will focus exclusively on providing our clients with first-class M&A advice and continuing to mentor the next generation of M&A leaders,” the memo said.
JPMorgan ranked second on the financial league table rankings last year, having advised on deals worth over $900 billion, according to data from Dealogic. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:) led the rankings for 2022, having advised on over $1.2 trillion worth of transactions.
JPMorgan’s M&A leadership reshuffle comes at a time of a significant slowdown in the pace of dealmaking that has forced Wall Street’s top investment banks to undertake a big round of layoffs, which represent the biggest contraction in headcount since the financial crisis.
Aiyengar is among a handful of women executives on Wall Street to lead a global M&A advisory franchise. Other prominent female leaders include Faiza Saeed, presiding partner at law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, Melissa Sawyer, global head of the M&A group at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, and Barbara Becker, chair and managing partner at law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
Aiyengar, a JPMorgan veteran of more than two decades, has led the bank’s M&A franchise since she was promoted to the role alongside Albersmeier in 2020.
She has advised on several large deals during her career, including Burger King’s acquisition of Tim Horton Inc. More recently Aiyengar led a number of significant transactions on which that JPMorgan has advised, including the sale of satellite operator Maxar Technologies (NYSE:) to private equity firm Advent International for $6.4 billion, and Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:)’s $2.65 billion acquisition of the global products business of Valvoline (NYSE:) Inc.
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