Wall Street’s biggest banks being abandoned

Wall Street’s biggest banks watched helplessly as their smaller, more nimble competitors divvied up more than $100 million in deal fees thanks to Kraft Food’s merger with H J Heinz, Business Insider reports.

Centerview Partners LLC, based in New York, was the exclusive advisor to Kraft Foods, and Lazard was H.J. Heinz’s only bank for their deal, valued at $36.6 billion.

This wasn’t the first big coup for Centerview, which also advised on last year’s biggest M&A transaction, the yet-to-be-completed Time Warner Cable-Comcast merger.

Boutiques like Centerview have doubled their share of M&A revenue from US clients since 2008, on a percentage basis, from 8% in 2008 to 16% last year. In 2013, boutiques commanded their highest percentage of US M&A, at 18%, according to Dealogic, which tracks industry data.

Centerview, which was formed in 2006, has shot up league tables, taking the 12th spot in Dealogic’s M&A revenue table for US banking revenue for last year.

Boutique banks are making a dent in big banks’ transactional revenue, poaching top talent and taking aim at a select handful of companies that can fuel a company's profits with the single stroke of a pen.