Top Morgan Stanley dealmaker joins City veteran's boutique

LONDON Jan 16 (Reuters) - Top Morgan Stanley investment banker Simon Robey is teaming up with senior London City figure Sir Simon Robertson to form a joint advisory boutique, the latest in a line of veteran dealmakers to quit a large investment bank for pastures new.

Robey, whose 25-year career at Morgan Stanley saw him latterly as head of the UK and co-chairman of Global Mergers and Acquisitions, will join Roberston's firm which will be renamed Robertson Robey Associates, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Robertson, himself a former banker at Goldman Sachs, set up his own advisory firm in 2005 to offer companies financial advice on transactions and strategy.

He also holds a number of senior positions in some of Britain's largest companies, including chairman at Rolls-Royce Group L> and deputy chairman and senior independent non-executive director at HSBC.

A number of top dealmakers are leaving investment banks to pursue their future at smaller independent firms as deal activity in recent years has stagnated.

Yoel Zaoui, co-head of global M&A at Goldman Sachs and a 24-year veteran at the bank left his job in April 2012 to set up Zaoui Capital with his brother Michael, a long-serving Morgan Stanley banker.

Robey's departure from the Wall Street bank was announced in an internal memo in September, though it was not known where he would be going to. [ID:nL5E8KSE0R}

Some of Robey's past clients include Rio Tinto, Cadbury in its defence against the hostile takeover from Kraft and most recently he worked on the failed merger talks beween BAE Systems and EADS.