We noted recently that the deal environment augured well for boutique investment banks, especially those with an identifiable niche.

Evercore seems to be rising high. It reported that first-quarter earnings rose 9.6 percent to $11.4 million; its earnings per share of 28 cents beat the average estimate of 24 cents. Revenues were powered by deal advisory assignments and investment management activity.

Evercore founder Roger Altman took the opportunity on a conference call with reporters and analysts to note that only Evercore and Morgan Stanley advised on three of the top 10 biggest mergers announced in 2011 and on five of the 10 biggest U.S. acquisitions.

"Has any other firm in the business done that? Goldman Sachs has not done that, JPMorgan has not done it," he said, according to media reports.

Evercore is certainly on a roll. It advised on AT&T's $39 billion deal for Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA business, the biggest deal this year. It also advised on the Exelon deak to buy Constellation Energy for $7.9 billion. Two other deals, the $22.4 billion merger of CenturyLink and Qwest and the $22.3 billion merger of Sanofi-Avantis and Genzyme will close soon, generating more advisory revenue, probably in the second quarter.

The deal pipeline is chock full,  to the tune of $90 billion, up from $60 billion at the beginning of the year, reports Dow Jones.

The firm relishes beating out the big boys, as do all the other boutiques. It will be interesting to see how Evercore's bankers are paid for this year. Compensation for the investment bank was 59 percent of revenue, compared with 75 percent for Greenhill. That's enough to make bankers at traditional powers green with envy.

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
Boutique investment banks still fare well
Evercore misses estimates, boutiques sagging?
Evercore expands in Europe--quickly