City firm unveils takeover.

CAZENOVE, the 190-year-old City firm, has unveiled a takeover by JP Morgan in a pounds 1bn deal that will trigger windfalls for current and former staff.

Nearly five years after creating its JP Morgan Cazenove joint venture, the US investment bank is buying the 50% of Cazenove it does not currently own.

The deal will mean multi-million pound payments for many past and present Cazenove employees. There are 1,500 Cazenove shareholders, of which 20% are current staff and 54% are former employees.

It is thought that Cazenove chairman David Mayhew, who joined the firm 40 years ago and is one of the City's best-known figures, will receive pounds 19m for his shares.

The joint venture, which made pre-tax profits of pounds 134.5m in 2008, has advised on a number of the large rights issues in the London market in recent months. These have included major fundraisings by HSBC, Rio Tinto and Lloyds Banking Group.

JP Morgan's offer price of 535p a share represents a significant premium on the most recently quoted price of 245p a share earlier this year. The broker's shares are not publicly listed.