Securitisation staff wanted for German and Italian deals
James Hogarth, of the headhunter Hogarth Davies Lloyd, said. "A number of firms have put off hiring in the summer and autumn and will be adding staff in the first quarter of 2003."
Clare Harris, a securitisation expert at Longbridge, agreed: "Securitisation has seen quite a lot of activity, relative to the rest of the market. Second tier firms are definitely still hiring."
The sector has not escaped redundancies, however. JP Morgan has announced plans to cut about 10 people from its corporate securitisation group.
In the current climate, successful securitisation candidates often possess at least one of three characteristics, headhunters say: they should be originators, they should have worked on some innovative deals, and they should be German.
"There are plenty of people with structuring skills; it is people who can originate business that are sought after," said Hogarth.
He said that as traditional asset-backed securitisation (ABS) deals become more commoditised, firms are focusing on synthetic ABS to generate profits, as well as ABS collateralised debt-obligations and various esoteric transactions.
Harris said Germans were in particular demand, to deal with the financial restructuring plans of many German companies. The jobs tended to be in London.
Rolf Behrens, managing director of Banking Consult, a headhunter in Frankfurt, said the securitisation teams at most banks in Frankfurt were mostly complete.
There are also opportunities elsewhere in Europe. Italian banks are still building securitisation capabilities, according to Tracey Turton at the headhunter Management Search International in Milan.
"Italian banks are looking for structurers in Milan. Corporate financiers with strong technical skills are being moved into securitisation," even though they have no securitisation experience, she said.
The right staff are likely to be well remunerated. Hogarth said that in London, key originators with additional technical expertise were likely to earn more than $1 million in 2002.
Harris said the basic salary for a head of securitisation was between 120,000 and 300,000. At the top end, bonuses varied between 100% and 500% of salary.
Lower down, bonuses may be less resilient. Hogarth forecast that for mid-level people they were likely to fall significantly this year from last year's levels.
Harris said that typical analyst-level salaries in securitisation were in the range of 35,000 in London, plus a bonus of more than 50%. Associates' base salaries were 50,000-60,000, with bonuses also above 50%.
