Brian Moynihan’s got game.
The Wall Street chieftain’s Bank of America lined up a $2 billion offer for the Los Angeles Clippers in near-record time after the NBA threw down an ultimatum to embattled owner Donald Sterling.
Just three days after Sterling’s wife Shelly hired the bank to shop the team, the Clippers had a binding offer from Microsoft billionaire Steve Ballmer in hand.
Typically, the sell-side investment bank gets 2 percent of the deal price, or $40 million in the case of the Clippers. Not bad for less than a week’s work.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said he would push the league’s other owners to force a sale if the Sterlings failed to find a buyer by a June 3 deadline.
Lawyers for Donald Sterling, who was barred from the NBA for making racist comments, say he has to sign off on the sale even though his wife asserts she’s the sole trustee for the family trust that owns the team. In short, this is not a done deal.
But landing the high-profile assignment still counts as a win for Bank of America, which beat rivals with better track records. The last major sports sale it handled was the bankrupt Texas Rangers in 2011.
JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have more active sports investment banking practices as does Raine Group, the bank boutique that is advising Ballmer.
Other boutiques with strong sports specialities include: Allen & Co., Game Plan, Three Ocean Partners, Galatioto Sports Partners and Inner Circle Sports.
Although Bank of America has a sizable sports lending practice, Moynihan and Co. considered competing for a handful of sports sales not worth the effort, said a source familiar with management’s thinking.
The team hired Bank of America, in part, because Donald Sterling was a client of the bank for years on his real-estate deals, several sources close to the process said.
As of May, Sterling reportedly had a $250 million line of credit with Bank of America.
Raul Anaya has been Bank of America’s lead banker on the deal. He serves as Bank of America’s enterprise leader for the Greater Los Angeles region.
Bank of America declined comment.