PwC's Annabelle Mooney returns to investment banking roots
Two years after leaving investment banking for mergers & acquisitions consulting, Annabelle Mooney has returned to her roots.
Mooney spent eight years in investment banking between 2009 and 2017, before she made the jump to PwC, one of the globe’s largest professional services firms. Her banking spell saw her work for two American giants in the space – Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch – and Japanese institution Nomura.
Prior to joining PwC, she was Head of Financial Sponsors at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, in the role leading the bank’s offerings to the private equity industry. At the Big Four firm, she was handed the task to lead the newly created Private Equity M&A practice. “My focus is to deliver PwC’s services to private equity clients in an integrated way and to help private equity identify and execute investment opportunities,” she said.
Two years into her role, Mooney has now decided to walk the opposite path, and join the commercial banking team of Wall Street giant JP Morgan. The bank describes itself as “one of the few full-service and fully integrated investment banks in Australia”, building on its expertise in investment banking & corporate finance, treasury & securities services, asset management and funds administration.
She brings circa 16 years of M&A experience, both in a legal and investment banking context, to the bank. “My M&A experience spans public, private and cross-border deals across a range of sectors, in particular private equity clients,” Mooney said.
Her move comes at a time when dealmaking activity in Australia is at a healthy level, amid strong global fundamentals for M&A, including cheap capital and private equity groups sitting on record levels of dry powder. According to a recent study by Deloitte, the outlook for Australia’s merger & acquisition industry remains bright for the coming twelve months. In line with developments seen in other mature markets, financial sponsors are ramping up their stakes, with local Australian players such as Quadrant Private Equity and Champ Private Equity eagerly seeking to deploy capital.
Annabelle Mooney holds a degree in law, and started her career in the legal industry, serving law firm Blake Dawson for eight years in Sydney.
