The Body Shop doesn't just sell perfume - it markets ethics. And no, that's not the latest fragrance to come out of the Calvin Klein stable.

The free trade in skin cream empire, formerly controlled by campaigning veteran Anita Roddick, veritably oozes the kind of principles designed to reduce the wrinkling effects of old age.

The Body Shop is in the thick of at least three extremely worthy humanitarian efforts, including the campaign to Make Poverty History, End Violence in the Home and provide relief to victims of the Asian tsunami.

Quite what the company's new brokers at Merrill Lynch - the potential short-term hosts to Prince William's City sabbatical - will make of all this is anyone's guess.

This is not to suggest for one second that Merrill - or the rest of its counterparts in the historically poverty-free Square Mile - no nothing about the merits of ethical business. Indeed, the City is quick to respond by reaching for its wallet in the aftermath of most natural disasters.

It's just that Merrill's brokers will not have had much time over recent months to explore debates about charity and morality in the marketplace.

This is because they, and their arch rivals at the likes of Morgan Stanley, Hoare Govett and Credit Suisse First Boston, have been locked in a bitter battle to secure new mandates as brokers to the top 100 or 250 quoted British companies.

In short, corporate broking has become intensely interesting.

The idea is simple - establish a strong equities based relationship with a FTSE client and then take pole position to pick up that lucrative advisory mandate when said client decides to go on the acquisition trail.

Today's mandate win from the Body Shop, a member of the FTSE 250, is a welcome coup for Merrill Lynch, which was itself the first casualty of this uniquely British war. Britain is the only place where companies retain a corporate broker in this way.

In April, Merrill lost a high profile team of corporate brokers, led by the highly respected Paul Baker, to Morgan Stanley, which promptly embarked on an aggressive push to win new corporate broking clients.

After losing several big hitters as clients, including Royal & Sun Alliance, the insurer, and Diageo, the drinks giant, Merrill has been busy rebuilding its business and trying to claw back some market share.

Today's Body Shop win - which will be presided over by vice-chairman of corporate broking Mark Astair and managing director Peter Tracey - is the latest example of the American investment bank regaining its broking foothold.

And this time it comes at the expense of Hoare Govett, which ironically is Mr Astair's former employer.

And Govett, which is the broking arm of Dutch bank ABN Amro, has been experiencing some turmoil of its own. Two months after Morgan Stanley's raid on Merrill Lynch, Citigroup carried out a similar poaching trip on ABN, taking its broking chief executive Nigel Mills as part of an audacious attempt to steal his entire team.

Citigroup successfully landed almost a dozen new brokers.

So, with all of this frenetic activity, Merrill will be celebrating the win of a high-profile cleint today. Its brokers may not visit the shops before the weekend, but who knows, perhaps they will make a donation.

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