DLJMBP Brings on Team for Euro Media Deals

The team of three includes Nigel Walmsley, 64, who has done stints as CEO of Carlton Media Group and vice president of the Royal Television Society, and currently is chairman of Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board Ltd. Also on the team is Tim Schoonmaker, 48, who spent 17 years at U.K. media group Emap PLC and then was CEO of Odeon Cinemas, which was sold on his watch to Terra Firma Capital Partners. Lastly, Rupert Shaw, 31, is a former DLJ banker who left there to spend five years at GMT Communications Partners Ltd. All three will report to Colin Taylor, head of DLJMB in Europe.

This is a typical move for CSFB, which often recruits industry pros to help it invest over a short period, usually about the time of one fund, said Taylor. After that, the pros move on to projects at different firms. This team will be hunting down deals with capital provided by DLJMBP IV, which is being raised now. DLJMBP III had $5.4 billion in capital commitments.

Previous industry pros DLJMBP has recruited included former Gap executive Ron Beegle and Ted Roberts, former President of Merck KgaA. The new team came to DLJMPB intact, which is unusual for the pros the firm recruits, which is usually on a one-off basis, said Taylor.

At DLJMBP, between 40% and 50% of deals are generated by someone inside CSFB, another 40% are generated from industry sources, and the balance comes from auctions, said Taylor.

Taylor called Walmsley the “eminence gris” of U.K. media and will serve as the “door opener” on the team as the door opener. Schoonmaker is the operations specialist , while Shaw has strengths in corporate development and financial engineering.

The team came with a list of deals it would like to look at and DLJMBP is working on about a half dozen of them now, said Taylor. Taylor has a bright outlook on media. “There are fundamental changes in the media world. Digitation, fragmentation of audiences, as well as other themes. We think these are driving change and opportunity as some of these companies restructure.”

DLJMBP describes itself as diversified, but often places heavy bets on a select few industries. Its third fund went 11% to media and 25% to the energy sector, including Basic Energy Services, which had its IPO late last year. “We’ll probably dial up media this time around, and also financial services,” said Taylor. DLJMBP was part of an investor group that acquired the reinsurance business of Chubb Corp. last year.

Other deals by DLJMBP last year included the buyouts of Wastequip Inc. for $308 million and Professional Career Development Institute, for an undisclosed sum.—M.C.