Jarden's deal limbo
The employee-owned investment bank dream is looking shaky.
The resignation letters from investment bank Jarden's two top New Zealand executives popped into executive chairman Aidan Allen's inbox at 9.06am (Auckland time) on July 27.
Over the following days, according to documents Jarden has filed in the Employment Court of New Zealand, a dozen further Jarden employees joined co-chief executive Daniel Reynolds and co-head of investment banking Silvana Schenone in an exodus to a new Kiwi operation set up by Matthew Grounds' Barrenjoey Capital Partners.
An additional 17 Jarden staff were solicited by Barrenjoey but decided to stay put after a desperate counter-campaign mounted by Allen and co-CEO Sarah Rennie.
On July 30, Allen emailed Jarden shareholders to tell them that, due to the Barrenjoey raid, plans to raise capital and sell off a chunk of wealth management arm Firstcape were on hold.
In reality, it was the best-timed bad news, giving Allen a great excuse to drive away from a deal that Rampart can reveal was already foundering amid staff and shareholder discontent.
