Vodafone AirTouch's hostile and successful bid for Mannesmann has been a landmark deal in more ways than one. For Warren Finegold, until recently co-head of M&A and now head of corporate coverage at Warburg Dillon Read, it was the 'big one' that propelled him into the front rank of M&A dealmakers in Europe, garnering him the top spot as an individual banker working for a European house in the Financial News 1999 league table.

Finegold has had a long and close association with Vodafone, whose takeover of Mannesmann was the biggest M&A transaction yet completed. When he was at Goldman Sachs he worked on the company's flotation in 1988, as well as the company's de-merger from Racal in 1991. Finegold has maintained contact with the top management ever since.