Greenhill was established in New York City in 1996 by Robert F. Greenhill, the former president of Morgan Stanley and former chairman and chief executive officer of Smith Barney. He founded the first M&A group on Wall Street while at Morgan Stanley and became an early pioneer of the industry. Greenhill has been featured in many prominent assignments since its founding including the $100 billion acquisition of ABN AMRO in 2007, the United States Department of Treasury's divestiture of its $51 billion stake in AIG in 2012, and the $17 billion merger between Northwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines in 2008. The firm was also involved as an adviser to a highly influential group of former Morgan Stanley partners in their successful and controversial bid to have former Morgan Stanley CEO Philip J. Purcell step down in 2005. Like a number of other independent investment banks, Greenhill has grown by recruiting a significant number of managing directors from major investment banks. The firm has also expanded globally, opening further offices in North America, Europe, Australasia, Asia and South America. In May 2004, the firm completed an initial public offering of common stock onto the New York Stock Exchange.
Recent activities
In October 2013, the firm announced that it had opened an office in São Paulo in conjunction with hiring Daniel Wainstein, the former head of Goldman Sachs' Brazilian investment banking business. In 2014, Greenhill advised on the $25 billion acquisition of Forest Laboratories by Actavis and the $10 billion merger between Safeway and Albertsons. Both transactions were among the ten largest of the year globally. In January 2015, Greenhill agreed to purchase Cogent Partners, a leading investment bank focused on secondary market advisory for private equity investments. In July 2015, Greenhill advised Teva Pharmaceuticals on the $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan plc’s Generics business in one of the largest transactions globally in 2015. In 2017, Greenhill advised Tesco on the £3.7 billion acquisition of Booker, the UK's largest food wholesale operator. Greenhill's team was led by David Wyles, the bank's president in London, and Charles Gournay, managing director, and the deal was confirmed in March 2018. In 2017, Greenhill advised Ladbrokes Coral for a £4 billion takeover approach by GVC. Greenhill worked together with UBS in the same teams that advised on the merger between Ladbrokes and Gala Coral in 2016. In 2019, Greenhill advised International Flavors & Fragrances on its merger with DuPont’s Nutrition & Biosciences business in a Reverse Morris Trust transaction. The deal valued the combined company at $45.4 billion on an enterprise value basis, reflecting a value of $26.2 billion for the N&B business based on IFF’s share price as of December 13, 2019.
