Barrenjoey recruits top Goldman exec

UPDATED: Barrenjoey Capital Partners has bolstered both its local team and its national mining credentials by recruiting the head of Goldman Sachs’ Perth office.

The move has not been officially announced but Business News has confirmed Peter Watson will be moving just a few steps up St Georges Tce to Barrenjoey’s new office.

Mr Watson has been the head of Goldman’s Perth office for the past decade and for most of that time was also head of metals and mining for Australia and New Zealand.

As well as being a lead adviser on multiple WA-focused takeover deals and capital raisings, he has also advised national and international companies.

Mr Watson’s pending move is the second big recruiting coup among Perth corporate advisers this month.

As Business News reported exclusively, King & Wood Mallesons has poached Ashurst partners Roger Davies – regarded as one of the city’s top corporate lawyers – and Antonella Pacitti.

Mr Watson will be joining Barrenjoey just a few months after the Sydney-based investment bank opened its Perth office.

The local office is led by Paul Early, who is a founding partner and head of mining & metals, as well as being an old friend of Mr Watson.

Mr Early spent much of last year recruiting three corporate finance executives and introducing WA corporates to Barrenjoey, which was launched in Sydney in 2020 and has grown to 300 staff nationally.

Its breakthrough WA deal came late last year as a joint lead manager for Liontown Resources’ $450 million capital raising.

With the addition of Mr Watson, its deal flow is likely to accelerate.

Among global investment banks, Goldman Sachs and UBS are the only ones to have maintained a long-running presence in Perth, albeit with just a handful of local staff.

Goldman strengthened its Perth team in January when executive director Nick O'Halloran returned to his home town.

A graduate of the University of Western Australia, Mr O'Halloran has about nine years investment banking experience with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman, mostly in Perth.

Melbourne-based Gavi Friedland, who spent several years with Goldman in Perth before transferring to Melbourne in 2019, will most likely be used to help plug the gap in Goldman’s coverage.

Mr Friedland replaced Mr Watson as head of metals and mining in Australia and New Zealand in October last year.

Mr Watson has about 25 years’ investment banking experience, having previously worked at Macquarie Capital and Rothschild and law firm MinterEllison.

He has worked on some of Australia’s largest mining deals, and not just for Perth-based companies.

For instance, he advised BHP last year on the unification of its corporate structure and on the $1.3 billion sale of Queensland coal assets.

Goldman’s Perth team also advised BHP on the sale of its petroleum division.

In equity capital markets, Mr Watson and his Perth team have led several major capital raisings for WA companies such as Vulcan Energy Resources, Bellevue Gold, Western Areas and Emeco Holdings

Goldman is currently advising Western Areas on the takeover offer from IGO.

Nationally, Mr Watson has advised Sydney-based lithium company ioneer on capital raisings and M&A deals.

He also led the team that advised Sydney-based Evolution Mining on its purchase of a gold mine in Canada.

Goldman also advised Saracen Mineral Holdings on its Super Pit acquisition and was joint lead manager for the associated $796 million capital raising.

Notably, it did not advise Saracen on its subsequent merger with Northern Star.