VETERAN GOLDMAN Sachs dealmaker Yoel Zaoui is set to retire, the latest in a series of high-profile departures from investment banks shaking up top management in the wake of the financial crisis.
Mr Zaoui, a Moroccan-born Frenchman, had been with the company for 24 years and would now become senior director – an honorary title – according to an internal memo obtained by Reuters. The bank confirmed the contents of the memo.
Taught at one of France’s elite business schools, Mr Zaoui moved to London in 1989 and had been “one of the pioneers” of Goldman Sachs’s European operations, the bank said, securing a long list of key deals for the firm.
Mr Zaoui had decided to leave the firm after “24 years of outstanding service”, according to the memo from Goldman chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and chief operating officer Gary Cohn.
He shared the role of co-head of global mergers and acquisitions (MA) with Gene Sykes, and was involved in deals such as the 2004 hostile takeover of Aventis by Sanofi, and in the merger between French oil giants TotalFina and Elf Aquitaine in 1999.
One of his best-known deals was advising Mittal Steel in its hostile takeover of rival Arcelor in 2006, a deal that pitched him against his brother Michael, who had a similar role at Morgan Stanley, and was advising Arcelor.
There have been several high-profile departures from Goldman this year. These included David Heller and Edward Eisler, co-heads of the firm’s securities business. In Europe, another senior MA banker, Luca Ferrari, also retired. The departures come amid a shake-up in the senior ranks at banks across Europe, including Switzerland’s UBS and Credit Suisse and France’s Société Générale. – (Reuters)
