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It can take years of patient work to build a relationship and win the confidence of a corporate client. Veteran deal maker Blair Effron did just that with PepsiCo before winning his payoff last year. The Purchase, New York--based soft-drink giant tapped Effron and his team at investment banking boutique Centerview Partners, along with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as its main advisers on the $15.5 billion buyback of two bottling units.
Unlike Steven Baronoff, the BofA Merrill chairman of global M&A who also worked on the deal, Effron wasn't involved when PepsiCo spun off the bottling units, PepsiAmericas (PAS) and Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG), in 1999. Nor was he in on Pepsi's last major deal, the acquisition of Quaker Oats...