The Franco-British bank now has a total of five offices across North America.

Following the opening of its Chicago office in September, Rothschild confirmed it is spending €20 million ($21.3 million) this year on bolstering its US operations as it seeks to tap into the world's largest mergers and acquisitions market.

Some 50 per cent of global M&A business occurs in the US market and this is an area in which the Franco-British bank is under-represented, Rothschild told Family Wealth Report.

Rothschild opened its Chicago office in September as an addition to the firm's other four North American offices located in New York, Washington DC, Toronto and Los Angeles. Eric Hirschfield leads the team in Chicago, which focuses on the mid-West region of the US, while Jimmy Neissa heads up all of Rothschild's North American operations.

Rothschild's net profit soared 72 per cent to €67 million in the six months to September, as revenues rose 18 per cent, propelled mainly by a rise in revenues from its M&A and financial advisory business. 

In 2014, Rothschild opened its Los Angeles office and it is now “starting to produce some good results,” a spokesperson for the group told this publication. Lee LeBrun oversees all M&A activity in the sunshine state's office. 

Meanwhile, as part of an ongoing effort to bolster its US presence, Rothschild Global Advisory recently recruited Michael Speller as a managing director and head of debt advisory for North America.

Speller joins the family-owned firm from Credit Suisse, where he spent a 16-year stint. Most recently, he spent nine years as a managing director and head of leveraged finance origination. Before that, Speller worked at Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities, and at Bear Steams, a New York-based investment bank.

“Michael’s deep knowledge and broad experience in debt capital markets is an exceptional enhancement of our worldwide financing advisory and M&A expertise,” said Neissa. 

Paul Duffy, global head of debt advisory at Rothschild, added: “He will allow us to expand our debt advisory business significantly in North America which is an important geography in our overall market-leading global debt advisory activity.”