Is Barrenjoey's next merger with Regal?

Every investment banker who has worked in one of the global bulge bracket firms knows the absolute joy of having a 900-pound balance sheet which, like a bazooka, can blow smaller competitors out of the water. Giving up that weaponry, and trading down to a boutique, gives bankers more freedom. Yet the loss of massive firepower can lead to ego shrinkage, loss of mojo, and status interruptus. 

With those immutable truths in mind, the rumour mill of Sydney's financial district has been exercised lately by the question of just how long it will be before the UBS old boys' (and gals') club at Barrenjoey Capital Partners goes hunting for heft. This was plainly its rationale for the all-too-easy reverse takeover of Magellan Financial Group, which completed last month, but was only ever going to be a stepping stone for Barrenjoey's founders Matthew Grounds and Guy Fowler.[[The merged company is still called Magellan Financial Group but a name-change to Barrenjoey will be approved by shareholders in October. Henceforth in this article I've referred to the company as Barrenjoey.]]

Global partnerships are the tried and true pathway for Australian investment banks seeking to strap on a bigger balance sheet. But as Grounds and Fowler know all too well, "global partnership" is so often a euphemism for "being rat-f—ed by New York/Zurich".