Goldman Restructures Its Activism Defense Team

By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED - JULY 6, 2015

Goldman Sachs has reshaped its activism defense practice, days after the senior banker who led the team, William Anderson, defected to the boutique investment bank Evercore Partners.

Wall Street of late has pressed to advise companies on defending themselves against dissident investors.

As part of the shift, Goldman has expanded the team’s mission beyond helping companies defend themselves against activist hedge funds to a broader mission of helping them respond to investor reactions of all kinds.

The M.&A. shareholder advisory team, as the new group will be called, will still reside within the mergers division of Goldman, according to an internal memorandum reviewed by DealBook.

The investment bank has named Steven Barg, most recently the firm’s head of mergers and acquisitions capital markets, and Avinash Mehrotra, most recently the head of real estate mergers, to lead the group, according to the memo....

Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/business/dealbook/goldman-restructures-its-activism-defense-team.html?_r=0