eFinancialCareers

Australian infrastructure investor Babcock & Brown has set a new record for staff cuts at a going concern. It announced this morning that it plans to cut headcount by almost two thirds between now and 2010. Babcock’s stock has plummeted 99% this year, and today’s announcement followed a warning that it was in danger of breaching its covenants and needed to reduce costs by $150m in order to halve... Read more

Australia’s private equity scene has taken a breather over recent months, in line with global financial markets. Likewise, the private equity jobs scene is also having a quiet spell at the moment, according to recruiters, with the biggest activity on the cards likely to be from private equity firms shedding staff, rather than hiring. But it seems that even if some staff are lost from the big firms, there’s still enough... Read more

Carlyle Group is expanding in Australia with the appointment of ex-ANZ banker David Balint as director of leveraged finance. The US-based private equity firm will now have two dedicated teams Down Under – buyout and leveraged finance – with eight executives based in its Sydney office. According to Balint, this is just the start of a determined push by Carlyle in the region. “The leveraged finance team sees... Read more

Private equity recruitment is only just keeping its head above water in Australia, but opportunities are still out there for those bold enough to switch jobs. The liquidity crisis has made debt harder to come by and this is putting a dampener on growth and hiring within private equity, according to Tony Garrett, a corporate finance partner at Deloitte. “At the moment, most PE fund managers are going back... Read more

Chinese private equity is surging ahead – but don’t just expect a job on the back of the boom. Total funds invested in China grew to US$20bn in Q1 2008, up by almost 60% from the previous quarter, according to new figures from research company Zero2IPO. But while established Hong Kong-based professionals are spearheading the charge into China, bankers who’ve been laid off in London and on Wall Street... Read more

Aussie banks are on the prowl overseas, picking up choice hires because the Australian market is robust and financial services is short of candidates. Grant Chamberlain, Deutsche Bank’s deputy head of M&A in Australia, says the firm is finding it difficult to source candidates who live locally. Most of its interviewees are Australians living abroad. “We haven't had to spend a lot of time trying to convince foreign nationals to come out... Read more

The bottom has fallen out of the leveraged finance market, but there don't seem to have been many redundancies – yet. Sharad Jain, director of the financial institutions ratings group at Standard & Poors, says there’s certainly been a significant increase in pricing associated with lending into leveraged finance transactions. “Given the current market volatility, the Australian banks are increasingly cautious about lending to corporates, particularly those who are more leveraged,” he... Read more

It's not looking good if you fancy landing a job in the Australian financial services market. The Aussie banking sector job market is floundering, according to the most recent monthly instalment of the Olivier Job Index. Report author Bob Olivier, a director of recruiter Olivier Group, attributes the poor results – down 5.12% in February – to the credit crunch, interest rate rises and the stock market sell-off. “Sub-prime write-offs have hurt... Read more

Forget US business schools, a new study suggests MBAs from China see the biggest boost to their earnings once the course has finished. The Financial Times’ 2008 MBA report found that alumni from Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University and Beijing’s China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) land the biggest salary increases upon graduation – 177% and 157% respectively. By comparison, graduates from a big name like the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School... Read more