In June of 2022, a 27-year-old investment banker named Matt Swain was seated in Sam Zell’s private dining room overlooking the Chicago River, listening to the famously tough-talking real estate legend express his fresh doubts about a deal.
Swain was a kid by dealmaking standards, and not a comer from Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, but a money-raiser for Triago, a French firm little known on Wall Street. Swain had helped persuade Zell to take a majority stake in the $129 million purchase of Entertainment Earth, a manufacturer of such showbiz collectibles as Star Wars action figures. But Zell—upon learning that EE was losing key contracts— told Swain he was getting nervous. And to salvage the transaction, the Manhattan-based Swain made an emergency mission to Zell’s Second City office.
