New M&A man at ING Barings

First Pacific main board director and former head of treasury, David Eastlake will join the Anglo-Dutch investment bank as head of M&A.

This may come as no surprise since Barings has dominated First Pacific’s recent M&A activities. It advised on the recent sale of its stake in property agent Savills and on the FinanceAsia M&A deal of the year in 1999 - the  $1.4 billion PLDT/ Smart /NTT merger of their Philippine mobile phone assets. First Pacific was at the core of this transaction as a shareholder in PLDT and Smart.

At Barings, Eastlake will focus on origination and execution and will help to replace the gap left by senior M&A rainmaker Tony Steains, who went to run M&A at Deutsche Bank.

Says investment banking head Malcolm Brown: “We are looking forward to David joining. His considerable corporate and M&A experience gained at First Pacific will be a great asset.”