When US drug store chain Walgreen agreed to buy a 45% stake in Alliance Boots, the $6.7bn deal provided a starved M&A world with its fourth largest global deal of the year, according to Thomson Reuters.

Our investment bankers of the week are therefore Richard Girling and Alan Hartman of Centerview Partners, the independent adviser which held the prestigious sole mandate from private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which is carrying out the sale.