Wall Street Banks Lose Out as More Companies Do Deals In-House

When PPR SA, the French owner of Gucci, sold a stake in its African distributor CFAO in August, it didn’t use an investment bank to handle the transaction.

Instead, the company turned to an in-house mergers and acquisitions team led by Charles de Fleurieu, 39, a former France Telecom SA M&A executive. “When we can, we do it on our own,” said group managing director Jean-Francois Palus, 51.