Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and United Financial Group, the Russian bank, are sharing the spoils in the latest Russian investment by BP, the UK energy group.

The three advisers are working for BP on combining its Russian interests with those of Alfa Group, a Russian conglomerate and Access-Renova, a Russian-US industrial group. The new company will merge TNK and Sidanco, the Russian energy groups, and will also own several other assets. The deal should provide an unusually high advisory fee for the three advisers, as most Russian M&A deals are relatively small, worth just a few hundred million euros.