Banks set to earn $143 mln in Comcast, Time Warner Cable deal fees

By Soyoung Kim

NEW YORK, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Comcast Corp's proposed $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc would generate as much as $143 million in investment bankingfees, providing a rare boon to Wall Street banks grappling witha dearth of large corporate takeovers.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, former top Morgan Stanleybanker Paul Taubman and Barclays, which togetheradvised Comcast, would split an estimated $51 million to $68million in advisory fees if the proposed deal goes through,according to estimates by Freeman & Co LLC.

Financial advisers to Time Warner Cable - Morgan Stanley, Allen & Company, Citigroup Inc and CenterviewPartners - are set to share $57 million to $75 million in fees,the estimates show.

However, a number of other banks backing a rival bidder,Charter Communications Inc, would likely miss out onthe several hundred millions of dollars in potential fees.

Because Charter's cash and stock offer for Time WarnerCable, unlike Comcast's all-stock bid, involved a largeborrowing, banks advising Charter could have earned more than$500 million in advisory and financing fees, according toFreeman & Co estimates in January.

Charter, which made a hostile $37.3 billion bid for TimeWarner Cable, was working with Goldman Sachs Group,LionTree, Guggenheim Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse Group and Deutsche Bank.

The proposed combination between Comcast and Time WarnerCable is this year's biggest transaction globally, and thelargest since Verizon Communications Inc's $130 billiondeal last year to buy out Vodafone Group Plc's stake inVerizon Wireless.

The deal is also yet another coup for Paul Taubman, who isadvising key corporate clients on his own after leaving MorganStanley in early 2013. The former co-head of Morgan Stanley'sinstitutional securities unit left the Wall Street firm after itbecame clear that Chief Executive James Gorman planned to choosehis long-time rival Colm Kelleher as the sole head of the unit.

Taubman was the No. 13 mergers adviser in 2013 globallythanks to his role advising Verizon on the buyout of the VerizonWireless stake, putting him ahead of entire banks such asEvercore Partners, Moelis & Co and Jefferies in thecoveted league table of financial advisers.