When Primaris Retail REIT does a deal, Royal Bank of Canada's investment bankers are usually there.
The REIT's equity sales usually feature RBC as a lead bank. RBC arranges mortgages and other loans for Primaris, such as when it bought five malls in 2011.
So RBC had to be more than a little surprised when the work of defending Primaris against a $4.4-billion hostile takeover bid from a KingSett Capital-led group went to two other banks, ones that have not used their balance sheets to support Primaris's growth.
The special committee of Primaris's board chose Canaccord Genuity, Canada's largest independent investment bank, and Evercore Partners, a U.S. boutique.
Why go with independents over the big banks that have spent years developing that relationship?
The pitch from the independents is that they will not be conflicted by other relationships and motives when looking for a deal. A bank that's owed money may have that in the back of its mind when recommending options to a board looking to get out from under a hostile bid.
In this case, it looks like the directors charged with finding another option to avoid Primaris falling into the hands of KingSett bought that logic.