Piper Sandler Cos. thinks its acquisition of London-based Stamford Partners LLP will better position both companies to offer financial advisory services to multinational food and beverage companies.

Piper Sandler had been looking to boost its European presence across a variety of consumer sectors, including the food and beverage market, to complement its presence in North America, Peter Hall, head of European Investment Banking at Piper Sandler, said in an interview.

The deal will "position us better to serve the multinationals both in North America and Europe," along with the private equity community and privately owned businesses, Hall said. While Stamford Partners had a "strong" position in the food and beverage market in the U.K. and other European countries, it did not have a presence in North America, something Piper Sandler could help with, Hall noted. The two began discussions in the second half of 2021.

The acquisition is "an effective use of capital that will allow [Piper Sandler] to continue to expand its European footprint," KBW analyst Michael Brown wrote in a Jan. 5 note. "[Piper Sandler] generated just 11% of advisory fees in 2021 from the region. Therefore, although Europe is notoriously tough to get right, it presents a large white space opportunity for [Piper Sandler]."

Hall said the partnership between Piper Sandler and Stamford Partners will strengthen the range of opportunities and offerings provided to clients of both companies.

"It very quickly became clear to both ourselves and Stamford Partners that if we were to put the two teams together, both our client base and the Stamford client base would benefit from a really, really powerful international offering that would create a lot more opportunities not just for us, but for our clients," Hall said.

The deal was Piper Sandler's second acquisition announced in 2021, following its October announcement of plans to acquire New York-based macro research firm Cornerstone Macro LLC. The targets of Piper Sandler's whole-company acquisitions over the last 10 years were all based in the U.S., according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

"We've increasingly found clients are looking for a truly international team amongst their advisers, so we've been exploring options to expand our presence into Europe," Hall added.