* Banks may bill $41mln for BGI-BlackRock deal, Freeman says
* CVC banks will share in $35mln "abort costs" - source
* Fillip for banks after completed M&A fees hit nadir in May
By Quentin Webb
LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) - The pending sale of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) to BlackRock should yield handsome rewards for Lazard and Credit Suisse, but spurned iShares suitor CVC's banks will not go empty handed either.
Banks advising Barclays and Blackrock stand to pocket some $41 million in fees from BGI, according to estimates from M&A consultancy Freeman & Co.
But the sale would at the same time trigger a $175 million break-fee payment to private equity house CVC, which had earlier agreed to buy iShares, the exchange-traded fund unit that is part of San Francisco-based BGI.
Roughly 20 percent, or $35 million, of that fee will go on so-called "abort costs", including advisory fees and other sunk costs, a person familiar with the matter said, while the remainder will go to CVC's investors.
The person declined to specify how much of the 20 percent would be paid to financial advisers, and how much on other expenses such as legal and accounting fees.
The break-up fee means that banks acting for CVC -- although missing out on the estimated $16 million of fees Freeman reckons a successful sale of iShares would have garnered -- will still receive some recompense.
Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank advised CVC, according to Thomson Reuters league-table data. Jefferies had also provided advice, another person familiar with the matter said.
The iShares deal also kept a raft of lawyers busy, including Barclays advisers Clifford Chance and CVC advisers SJ Berwin.
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Markets were keenly awaiting the outcome of the BGI talks on Thursday, with BlackRock expected to seal a deal for between $12 billion and $13 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, making it one of the year's top 10 takeovers.
If the deal is struck for $13 billion, BlackRock adviser Credit Suisse could pocket some $26 million, and Barclays' allies Lazard $13 to $14 million. JPMorgan Cazenove -- which acts as corporate broker to Barclays -- would get up to $1 million, according to Freeman & Co.
A team at the Barclays Capital investment banking unit also advised Barclays, but Freeman does not consider such in-house advice as fee-generating.
Fees earned by banks for advising on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have plunged, as the credit crisis crippled dealmaking in the months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Estimated fees for completed M&A deals globally fell to $892.4 million in May, according to Thomson Reuters and Freeman, the first time since records started in 1998 that monthly fees have sunk below $1 billion.
Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Cazenove, Lazard and Rothschild all declined to comment. Jefferies was not immediately available for comment. (Additional reporting by Simon Meads and Steve Slater in London and Paritosh Bansal in New York; Editing by Rupert Winchester)