Keith R. Harris
Encyclopedia
Keith R. Harris is a London-based investment banker and financier with a 25-year career as a senior corporate finance and takeover advisor. He is a private equity investor that owns stakes in various businesses, including investment bank Seymour Pierce, and other varied holdings in sport and media.
, Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild, and continues to act for several high net worth families from the Middle East, Russia and India on sport and media related acquisitions. Harris was President of Morgan Grenfell Inc. (now owned by Deutsche Bank) and was the youngest ever director at the British bank, then departing to serve as head of international investment banking at the American firm Drexel Burnham Lambert
.
from 1990 to 1994 he was Chief Executive of Apax Partners
Worldwide LLP (formerly known as Apax Partners Ltd.), the multi-billion pound private equity asset management firm founded by American Alan Patricof and Sir Ronald Cohen. Harris was recruited by Sir William Purves, then Chairman of HSBC Group, to HSBC Investment Bank PLC where from 1994 to 1999 he served as global Chief Executive. At HSBC
, Harris oversaw a staff of approximately 13,500 in forty-six countries. Under his leadership, HSBC Investment Bank achieved an average annual return on equity of more than 20% with over 30% in some years.
He became Executive Chairman of Seymour Pierce and an investor beginning in 2003 when he led a buyout group that acquired the UK investment bank founded in 1803. Seymour Pierce is the number one ranked investment bank in London for LSE AIM listed companies and the bank is the leading strategic financial adviser to top-level professional football (soccer) teams, advising on dozens of acquisitions, including Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham, Aston Villa and Manchester City, among others. Seymour Pierce is the number one ranked investment bank in London for London Stock Exchange
AIM listed companies. Seymour Pierce is a registered Nominated Advisor, or NOMAD, with authority delegated by the London Stock Exchange to regulate and supervise companies admitted to trade publicly on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) segment of the LSE. Seymour Pierce is the primary regulatory for approximately 80 public companies.
He also has been active in the insurance sector, serving since 1999 as a non-executive director of Benfield Group
Plc., a reinsurance intermediary and capital advisory business, until its $1.75 billion acquisition by Aon Re Global in 2009 (NYSE: AON). Since 2009, he has been a director of Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford, one of the world's largest privately owned insurance and reinsurance brokers, headquartered in the City of London.
of Russia, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
of Thailand and Mohamed Fayed, owner of Fulham football club and former owner of Harrods
(sold to Qatari investors).
Harris advised Richard Desmond
on the £125 million acquisition of the Express Group, the media company that publishes the Daily and Sunday Express newspaper.
He represented American billionaire, Randy Lerner
, in the acquisition of Aston Villa football club, one of the oldest clubs in the world. Lerner is also the owner of the Cleveland Browns
whose fortune was originally derived from the MBNA
banking group. It was a letter from William McGregor, a Director at Aston Villa, to four other clubs on March 2, 1888, which led to the formation of the world's first league football competition.
In 2010, he advised an unnamed Middle Eastern client on the attempted acquisition of Liverpool football club. He has acted for numerous other Middle Eastern clients from several countries in the region. He is believed to have developed many of his Middle East contacts whilst CEO of HSBC Investment Bank. The bank has long roots in the region, having acquired The British Bank of the Middle East in 1959 (now called HSBC Bank Middle East Limited) which was established in London in September 1889 originally as the Imperial Bank of Persia.
, the law firm, to attempt to remove Malcolm Glazer
, the club’s owner. The group then met with Keith Harris, a Manchester United fan and the chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce, in order to broker a takeover. Mr Harris, a life long Manchester United fan, joined as a member of the Red Knights consortium of financiers that sought to buy the club from the Glazer family, the controversial American owner of the football club.
The leading figures of the Red Knights are Jim O'Neill, a former HSBC investment bank chief executive and chief economist at Goldman Sachs; Seymour Pierce's Keith Harris; Paul Marshall, a partner at the hedge fund Marshall Wace; Richard Hytner of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi and lawyer Mark Rawlinson, a partner in Freshfields' corporate practice, who advised United during the Glazer takeover negotiations.
Self-professed United fan Harris claimed the group wants "to do something for the good of Manchester United and the good of football." In the past, he has been involved in the takeovers of West Ham, Manchester City and Aston Villa, but last year, he correctly predicted that football's finances were set for a crash, and has been extremely critical of the debt-burden the Glazers have brought to Manchester United.
Background
In senior positions at leading global banks Harris has advised on hundreds of debt and equity issues and complex cross border transactions, as well as acting for noteworthy clients and high profile transactions like the £13.5bn hostile bid for British American Tobacco by Kerry PackerKerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
, Sir James Goldsmith and Lord Rothschild, and continues to act for several high net worth families from the Middle East, Russia and India on sport and media related acquisitions. Harris was President of Morgan Grenfell Inc. (now owned by Deutsche Bank) and was the youngest ever director at the British bank, then departing to serve as head of international investment banking at the American firm Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert
Drexel Burnham Lambert was a major Wall Street investment banking firm, which first rose to prominence and then was forced into bankruptcy in February 1990 by its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by Drexel employee Michael Milken. At its height, it was the...
.
from 1990 to 1994 he was Chief Executive of Apax Partners
Apax Partners
Apax Partners LLP is a global private equity and venture capital firm, headquartered in London. The company also operates out of eight other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel-Aviv, Madrid, Stockholm, Milan and Munich. The firm, including its various predecessors, have raised...
Worldwide LLP (formerly known as Apax Partners Ltd.), the multi-billion pound private equity asset management firm founded by American Alan Patricof and Sir Ronald Cohen. Harris was recruited by Sir William Purves, then Chairman of HSBC Group, to HSBC Investment Bank PLC where from 1994 to 1999 he served as global Chief Executive. At HSBC
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...
, Harris oversaw a staff of approximately 13,500 in forty-six countries. Under his leadership, HSBC Investment Bank achieved an average annual return on equity of more than 20% with over 30% in some years.
He became Executive Chairman of Seymour Pierce and an investor beginning in 2003 when he led a buyout group that acquired the UK investment bank founded in 1803. Seymour Pierce is the number one ranked investment bank in London for LSE AIM listed companies and the bank is the leading strategic financial adviser to top-level professional football (soccer) teams, advising on dozens of acquisitions, including Chelsea, Newcastle, West Ham, Aston Villa and Manchester City, among others. Seymour Pierce is the number one ranked investment bank in London for London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
AIM listed companies. Seymour Pierce is a registered Nominated Advisor, or NOMAD, with authority delegated by the London Stock Exchange to regulate and supervise companies admitted to trade publicly on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) segment of the LSE. Seymour Pierce is the primary regulatory for approximately 80 public companies.
He also has been active in the insurance sector, serving since 1999 as a non-executive director of Benfield Group
Benfield Group
Benfield Group is a leading independent reinsurance and risk intermediary. Customers include most of the world's major insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government entities and global corporations...
Plc., a reinsurance intermediary and capital advisory business, until its $1.75 billion acquisition by Aon Re Global in 2009 (NYSE: AON). Since 2009, he has been a director of Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford, one of the world's largest privately owned insurance and reinsurance brokers, headquartered in the City of London.
Clients
Harris has been publicly associated with a number of high net worth clients. These include Roman AbramovichRoman Abramovich
Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich is a Russian businessman and the main owner of the private investment company Millhouse LLC.In 2003, Abramovich was named Person of the Year by Expert, a Russian business magazine. He shared this title with Mikhail Khodorkovsky...
of Russia, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....
of Thailand and Mohamed Fayed, owner of Fulham football club and former owner of Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
(sold to Qatari investors).
Harris advised Richard Desmond
Richard Desmond
Richard Clive Desmond is an English publisher and businessman. He is the owner of Express Newspapers and founder in 1974 of Northern & Shell, which publishes various celebrity magazines, such as OK! and New!, and British national newspapers Daily Star and Daily Express...
on the £125 million acquisition of the Express Group, the media company that publishes the Daily and Sunday Express newspaper.
He represented American billionaire, Randy Lerner
Randy Lerner
Randolph D. Lerner is an American entrepreneur and sports team owner.Lerner has been the owner of the American football team, the Cleveland Browns, of the National Football League since October 2002, and the Chairman of Aston Villa Football Club of the English Premier League since 2006...
, in the acquisition of Aston Villa football club, one of the oldest clubs in the world. Lerner is also the owner of the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
whose fortune was originally derived from the MBNA
MBNA
MBNA Corporation was a bank holding company and parent company of wholly owned subsidiary MBNA America Bank, N.A., headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, prior to being acquired by Bank of America in 2006...
banking group. It was a letter from William McGregor, a Director at Aston Villa, to four other clubs on March 2, 1888, which led to the formation of the world's first league football competition.
In 2010, he advised an unnamed Middle Eastern client on the attempted acquisition of Liverpool football club. He has acted for numerous other Middle Eastern clients from several countries in the region. He is believed to have developed many of his Middle East contacts whilst CEO of HSBC Investment Bank. The bank has long roots in the region, having acquired The British Bank of the Middle East in 1959 (now called HSBC Bank Middle East Limited) which was established in London in September 1889 originally as the Imperial Bank of Persia.
Red Knights
In 2010, a cabal of Britain’s leading businessmen calling themselves the Red Knights met at the offices of Freshfields Bruckhaus DeringerFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is a global law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom and a member of the 'Magic Circle' of leading English law firms. It is the second-largest law firm in the world measured by revenues. In 2010-11 it achieved total revenues of £1.14 billion and profits...
, the law firm, to attempt to remove Malcolm Glazer
Malcolm Glazer
Malcolm Irving Glazer is an American businessman and sports team owner. He is the president and chief executive officer of First Allied Corporation, a holding company for his varied business interests, most notably in the food processing industry...
, the club’s owner. The group then met with Keith Harris, a Manchester United fan and the chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce, in order to broker a takeover. Mr Harris, a life long Manchester United fan, joined as a member of the Red Knights consortium of financiers that sought to buy the club from the Glazer family, the controversial American owner of the football club.
The leading figures of the Red Knights are Jim O'Neill, a former HSBC investment bank chief executive and chief economist at Goldman Sachs; Seymour Pierce's Keith Harris; Paul Marshall, a partner at the hedge fund Marshall Wace; Richard Hytner of advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi and lawyer Mark Rawlinson, a partner in Freshfields' corporate practice, who advised United during the Glazer takeover negotiations.
Self-professed United fan Harris claimed the group wants "to do something for the good of Manchester United and the good of football." In the past, he has been involved in the takeovers of West Ham, Manchester City and Aston Villa, but last year, he correctly predicted that football's finances were set for a crash, and has been extremely critical of the debt-burden the Glazers have brought to Manchester United.