AU
M&A: musical chairs, not mass movement
4 September 2009
Nomura is building its Aussie headcount and bankers are moving between Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan and UBS – could this mark the start of a revival in M&A hiring?
The answer is probably a tentative “yes”, but the structure and scale of i-banking advisory recruitment is still constrained.
“January to April was all about cutting costs. Now we’re starting to see a slight uptake in activity because banks don’t want to be short staffed on the M&A upswing,” says Blaise Habgood, NSW manager of Randstad’s executive division.
Most of the recent investment banking advisory movement is restricted to three critical coverage industries: real estate, financial institutions and resources, according to Gary Howard, an investment banking consultant at Talent2.
Plenty of property bankers have been jumping ship recently. Merrill Lynch got things started when it nabbed the UBS property team led by Darren Rehn. But the Swiss bank quickly bounced back by poaching seven JP Morgan employees, including MD Tim Church.
These musical-chairs examples also illustrate that many vacancies are replacement-driven. While this is certainly better than the headcount freezes of early 2009, it means that recruitment is still small scale. “We’re nowhere near the levels of hiring activity seen in 2006/2007," says Howard.
Some banks, however, are bucking the trend. Nomura and Barclays - two comparative upstarts in Aussie i-banking - are growing their workforces while their competitors stay cautious.
Nomura, for example, recently hired Ian Maxton from Deutsche Bank, Ed de Salis from Bank of Scotland and John Hanson from Merrill Lynch.
"Second tier investment banks, that would like to gain a footprint in Australia, are using the down turn to their advantage to recruit talent that would not normally be available,” says Howard.
All i-banks, whether they are established or expanding, are focusing their M&A recruitment on leadership-level roles. “It’s important to have the right senior executives in place - bankers with existing contacts and strong relationships who can hit the ground running in 2010, when the market will really ramp up,” comments Howard.
Habgood adds: “Firms do mainly want deal-makers, but we’re just starting to see some demand for analyst and research positions to support them. I expect more of these openings next year. Market sentiment is improving and candidates are getting more confident about moving.”
