The boutique investment bank paying £1.8m per head in London
Yes, you read that right.
The boutique, Qatalyst Partners, posted 2022 results for its London subsidiary yesterday, with revenue, profit, and pay all shooting up.
Qatalyst paid a huge £16.6m wage bill (or "wages and salaries", to use the legal terminology) to just 9 employees in the city, averaging out to £1.8m ($2.2m) each. It was no slouch in 2021 either, which was actually a much better year for the economy, and M&A generally, when it paid out an average of £1.2m to its 7 employees.
Both payments, as generous as they are, are absolutely dwarfed by the £30m ($36m) in dividends that it paid out. Qatalyst was founded by Frank Quattrone, former Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley technology groups head.
Revenue at the bank increased from £55m ($67m) in 2021 to £82m ($100m) in 2022, a nearly 50% increase, whilst bottom-line profit more than doubled – from £12m ($14m) to £28m ($34m).
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Qatalyst Partners is a hugely tech-focused boutique, and that seems to be an approach that’s paid off. Technology was, per market intelligence provider Dealogic’s data, the biggest industry for M&A revenue in the first half of 2023, with around 18% of global fees paid. Qatalyst, in turn, captured 8% of that market – the second-biggest player globally, behind only Goldman Sachs.
The fortunate beneficiaries of Qatalyst's high pay in EMEA include: Peter Spofforth, who runs the team and joined from Lloyds in 2011, Salvatore Arcarese, an MD who joined from Deutsche Bank in 2014; and Milad Zarpak, a VP who's been there since 2015. People seem to stick around; the pay might be why.
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