JOSEPH PERELLA, one of the world’s biggest dealmakers, came one step closer to launching his own company this week as officials at the US Securities and Exchange Commission gave him unofficial approval to launch before the end of next month.

Mr Perella has in recent months signed on an impressive cast of investment bankers.

The former Merrill Lynch banker Philip Yates will be heading up European operations from London, and sources say that he is ready to open up shop by the third week in June.

A Wall Street source said: “We are just a few weeks away now.

“I would be surprised if we entered the month of July without a launch.

Mr Perella, who left Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, last year to work privately on Bank of America’s $34 billion (£18 billion) acquisition of MBNA, the US card group, has kept Wall Street-watchers on tenterhooks for months while putting the finishing touches to his boutique advisory firm. Investment banking teams at rivals such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch are anxious to see how many clients the Perella team will attract, and how much of their fee income will be diverted into the new company’s coffers.

The company still has no name, but has been dubbed “NoCo” by insiders. Some from the Perella camp seem to think an eponymous corporation is most probable.

After graduating from the Lehigh University in 1964 with a degree in accounting, Mr. Perella spent six years with Haskins & Sells, an accountant, and served at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In 1972, after receiving his MBA from Harvard , he founded First Boston Group’s mergers and acquisitions department.

In 1988 he co-founded Wasserstein Perella, with close friend Bruce Wasserstein, who now heads Lazard.

The SEC is expected to make formally approve Mr Perella’s new venture within the next two weeks.

This week, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, of Japan, formed an alliance with Mr Perella’s new firm with a $100 million cash injection. The cash injection comprises investment capital and an equity stake and the two will work together on acquisitions advice and financial services.

Mr. Perella stepped down as vice-chairman and head of investment banking at Morgan Stanley last spring because he had been called in to advise in a personal capacity on the $34 billion acquisition of MBNA by Bank of America.

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