Bear Stearns' work for Gullane Entertainment on its £45.5m (€76.1m) acquisition of the Guinness World Records companies goes some way to boosting the profile of the US bank's European mergers and acquisitions advisory practice.

Bear Stearns was hired by the UK family entertainment company in early January, and the relationship stems from Bear Stearns' US office. The deal is, however, the first M&A transaction the bank has worked on for Gullane.