Jobs roundup: Focus on equity research

There were mixed messages for equities researchers last week. Redundancies at HSBC set an ominous tone, but fund managers continued to boost equities research teams with additional hires.

Ever since Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, showed equity research has been compromised by corporate finance mandates, researchers' position in investment banks has been precarious.

Last week it took a turn for the worse: HSBC announced 450 equities redundancies worldwide, with research as well as sales at the forefront of the cuts.

Fund managers however are showing an appetite for hiring researchers. Insight Investments and Schroder Investment Management are among those that have recruited in the past six months. Last week Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM), Axa Investment Managers and Henderson Global Investors joined the club.

CSAM added an analyst to its European equity research team, Axa boosted its UK team, and Henderson appointed a head of company research. Hiring may come too late for redundant HSBC staff however: CSAM indicated it was unlikely to make additional equities research hires.

IT fims were also hiring staff last week. BearingPoint, a consulting and systems integration firm, recruited five new managers to its UK financial services practice in London. Beauchamp Financial Technology, a UK hedge fund software specialist, appointed two new directors.

Meanwhile, Alta Berkeley, a UK venture capital house, hired Kevin Fielding, a former chief executive of a Nasdaq-listed technology company, to help invest its technology fund. A partner in Alta Berkeley's London office said the technology market is picking up

In the private equity arena Keyhaven Capital Partners, a fund of private equity funds advisory boutique founded earlier this year, hired Claus Stenbaek as a second managing director in London.

However Sal Oppenheim, a German private bank, indicated it planned to bow out of the private equity fund of funds market following a merger with CAM Private Equity, an independent German firm.

Finally, in a week when Sibfnet, a Russian oil company, suspended its planned merger with rival Yukos, Russia continued to draw recruits. Fitch, the international ratings agency, hired an analyst covering the Russian oil and gas sector to work in its Moscow office.