AG Barr’s merger with Britvic, Müller’s acquisition of Robert Wiseman, Bright Food’s purchase of Weetabix… name any of this year’s biggest grocery deals and chances are Akeel Sachak was involved. The global head of consumer at Rothschild, who represented AG Barr, Müller and Bright Food respectively in the above deals, is grocery’s go-to guy when it comes to M&A negotiations - and has been for some time.

He spearheaded the sale of RHM to Premier Foods in 2006, Tennent’s and Gaymers to C&C in 2009 and Heineken’s acquisition of Mexican beer giant Femsa in 2010. And he doesn’t confine himself to just the monster deals - his team is currently advising the owners of B&M Retail on a possible sale. So what makes him such a dealmaker extraordinaire?

The Rothschild brand and network have undoubtedly helped. “He’s tenacious and well-connected,” adds a senior City source who knows him well. Sachak himself, however, puts his success primarily down to family values. After 200 years in business, Rothschild remains a family-run business, as do many of its clients. “I have no doubt it’s a big factor in many of our client relationships,” he says. “We have a real affinity for family business and are acutely aware of the specific issues they face.”

Of course, family-owned doesn’t mean small in Rothschild’s case. The bank has a network of 55 offices in 42 countries with around 100 professionals looking after retail and fmcg. This, he says, is more than any of Rothschild’s rivals - a significant claim considering the competition includes financial powerhouses such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

Its ownership offers another advantage. Because it is privately owned rather than publicly listed, Rothschild has “the luxury to take a long-term view of client relationships”, argues Sachak, pointing out that he has worked with clients such as Lion Capital and Associated British Foods for years. “Other banks that are subject to quarterly reporting will come under pressure often forcing clients to do things they shouldn’t do.”

This is a point of pride for Sachak, who’s been at the bank for 26 years. He cites confectionery giant Ferrero - a client for 10 years without a single deal materialising. Ferrero did consider a bid for or merger with Cadbury when Kraft began its hostile takeover for the UK confectioner, but of course ultimately a full bid never got off the ground.

With such a wide range of clients, interests inevitably clash sometimes. Last year, as the Icelandic shareholders of Iceland Foods looked to sell up, Iceland founder Malcolm Walker and Morrisons - both Rothschild clients - had their eyes on the prize. “It’s never easy when we have to make a choice between two long-standing clients,” says Sachak. “We committed ourselves to Malcolm Walker as we’d been working with him on Iceland for a long time.” In the end Morrisons hired Credit Suisse, but Walker was the victor, getting his hands back on the business he founded in 1972, with Sachak’s help of course.

Not all negotiations go to plan, however. Earlier this year, Sachak was hopeful of securing Czech brewer StarBev on behalf of Japan’s Asahi in a deal worth $3bn. Molson Coors was the victor in the end, but Sachak says he learns from disappointments like this as much as the successes, pointing to his recent dealings with Chinese behemoth Bright Food as an example.

Bright Food’s appetite for western acquisitions was never a secret and in September 2010 Sachak was involved in negotiations between Bright and UB, but a deal never came to fruition. “That deal was defeated by Bright Food’s inexperience at the time in undertaking large-scale M&A activity internationally,” he claims. “But of course they learnt from that and were able to tie up a deal for Weetabix this year.”

Equally, Sachak had a clear idea of what Bright Food was looking for and realised Weetabix would make a good fit. The deal officially completed last month.

The end of the deal doesn’t signal the end of the story, though. With Premier Foods drastically restructuring its Hovis operations last week, there will be further question marks over the merits of its acquisition of RHM in 2006. But Sachak claims his conscience is clear: Rothschild did not give Premier advice on the financial structure of the deal, he says, but rather worked as advisors to get the deal done. “It’s sad to see that the financing structure put in place at the time undermined what I thought was a strategically coherent deal,” he says.

He does, however, see light at the end of the tunnel for Premier. “They have a bunch of high-value assets and they’re choosing to deleverage to a manageable level so they can invest more aggressively in the great brands they have,”he says. “They also have a CEO in place who looks equal to the challenge.”

Bankers are hardly flavour of the month for businesses who blame them for a lack of readily available finance, but again Sachak maintains his conscience is clear. His team are a vital cog that keeps the industry moving, he insists, adding that his long-standing relationships are testament to the way he does business.

“In the 26 years I’ve been here, I’ve never been required to compromised my ethics or integrity in any way,” he claims. “I’m not sure everyone in every investment bank can say that.”

 

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