Now that the traditional summer lull is drawing to a close in the financial sector, it’s worth considering where the job options will lie for the remainder of the year. Here’s our pick of the firms most likely to be hiring.
RBC Capital Markets
RBC is building out its investment banking business in Europe, hiring traders, research analysts and M&A bankers away from rivals as it retreats from certain business areas. It’s hired an entire team of telecoms analysts from Barclays as well as Jason Kay, the former head of base metals trading at Deutsche Bank, as it expands into commodities. The bank is also expanding in the U.S, recently hiring a trio of managing directors for its advisory business, with Blair Fleming, head of US investment banking saying the hires were part of its “continued build out of our investment banking platform”.
Pimco
Pimco lost $830m in assets under management over the past month from its flagship total return bond fund – the 15th consecutive month of outflows. No wonder it’s looking to diversify away from its tradition strength in fixed income towards equities. The first batch of new senior hires – Iain McNaught, Simon Peters, Sean Hetmann and Aylon Ben Shlomo – have already joined and the fund manager is set to make around 15 appointments in the coming months. It also recruited Ethan Schwartz as a distressed debt money manager in a “continued focus on enhancing our investment platform outside of traditional markets.”
Winton Capital Management
It’s a signal of intent from Winton Capital Management that it moved into a new 70,000 square feet London office that is only a third full by its current staff base. Winton has already said that it was planning to hire an addition 100 people in 2014 across its UK and Swiss offices and has plans to open new divisions in New York, Tokyo and Sydney. It has recently opened a US office and says it will be expanding “through hiring”. Currently, it’s looking for technologists, data scientists, compliance and its quantitative research division.
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo may be a behemoth state-side, but it’s so far resisted the urge to expand into the City of London. This is changing – the bank has already added 50 front office staff for its UK investment banking operation this year and has expanded its EMEA operation from 600 people in 2012 to 950 today. Like Winton, it’s moving into a larger office space in One America Square, near London’s Fenchurch Street, and is likely to continue hiring this year.
Highbridge Principal Strategies
Both the Highbridge Capital Management, the $29bn hedge fund owned by JPMorgan, and its private equity arm Highbridge Principal Strategies have been on a hiring drive this year, bringing in some big names – such as Fortress investment group managing director Jon Ashley and John Aylward from Claren Road Asset Management – but it continues to hire across all levels. Front office headcount in London has gone up by over 26% since this time last year, with Philip Moore, the former principal at DRC Capital, and Anthony Olea, an associate in Goldman Sachs’ leveraged finance division, the latest recruits to join earlier this month.
Cantor Fitzgerald
Cantor’s recruitment of two from Goldman Sachs employees, ex-managing director James Pinto and VP Stephan McElreath, for its FX business is indicative of its desire to expand further in this area. It has also been expanding elsewhere, naming Samir Hussein as head of internet and media investment banking.
Citigroup
Not exactly an expansion, but Citi is hiring again for its FX team to replace the senior staff who departed in the wake of the global probe into currency trading practices. Around 30 staff have reportedly left and Danny Wise, a former Credit Suisse trader, has just been appointed as European head of G10 spot foreign exchange in London – the first significant replacement hire.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan is forming a new electronic trading team comprising around 150 people to monitor trades across its various assets classes and platforms in order to seek out new opportunities and identify potential threats. Aside from this, and the continuing build out of its compliance team as it hires an additional 3,000 people, it’s also recruiting for a new equities sales team as it targets more hedge fund and sovereign wealth fund clients.
HSBC
HSBC has been bringing in some big name dealmakers for its investment bank in recent weeks including James Simpson as head of M&A for EMEA and Kristian Terling to lead its Nordic region business. Expect hires lower down the career ladder, but this has not been HSBC’s primary area of focus. It’s being weighed down by the cost of compliance, has been forced to redirect revenue generating headcount across to the middle office and has been bumping up salaries in this area. This hiring drive shows few signs of abating.
Bluecrest Capital Management
Another reminder that the expansion at Bluecrest, which has seen UK front office headcount increase by 20% over the past 12 months, continues unabated. Since July, it’s brought in Donough Murphy from HSBC, Tejus Trivedi from Royal Bank of Scotland, Matthias Eifert from MainFirst Bank as a research analyst and Qaess Mehmood from Mansion House Securities.
Nomura
Nomura has been hiring at the senior level for both its fixed income and equities divisions. Most recently, Simon Harris joined in the newly-created role as managing director and head of European single-stock flow trading and this follows the poaching of Ronan Connolly as head of equities for EMEA. It’s also been hiring some senior fixed income professionals across sales and trading. Expect more hires to follow.
Edgecrest Capital
Having just received the go-ahead from the UK Financial Conduct Authority, Edgecrest Capital is reportedly hiring for its London office. The Canadian boutique has just appointed Dan Vickerman, previously co-head of Canadian sales at Canaccord Genuity, as head of its UK outfit and has plans to hire more people. The focus will be on mining, energy and distressed situations.
Tudor Investment Corporation
Tudor may only have around 60 people working in FCA approved functions in its UK operation, but that’s a figure that’s expanded by 17% over the past 12 months. Most recently Nicolas Munns, a macro portfolio manager at Omni Partners, and Matthew Jones, who worked on the same team at the firm, moved across to Tudor in August.
Cheyne Capital
Cheyne Capital has been on a quiet hiring spree relative to its size over the past few months, which appears to be continuing into the final months of 2014. In April, it hired two senior employees of Meditor Capital Management, Martin Glenn and Pierre Di Maria, and then added Sebastian Virchow in May. However, it’s also been losing people, which suggests that replacement hiring is necessary in the months ahead. Simon Davies, head of the event-driven investment team, and Michael Massoud, a partner and head of event-driven strategies, both left the firm in June.
UBS
The Swiss bank isn’t exactly in the midst of a hiring spree, but an internal shake-up is resulting in a number of new senior hires being brought into the fold. As we pointed to earlier, a trio of senior coverage bankers, including Anthony Iofe and Stefanos Papapanagiotou, have joined this month, which follows the appointment of seasoned dealmakers like Severin Briznay, who came from JPMorgan to lead UBS’s EMEA M&A division. This is part of a general desire at the bank to bring in some “grey hairs” within its investment banking team.
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