European jobs roundup: Banks hire debt staff

Debt took centre stage in much of the past week's hiring activity. Mergers and acquisitions recruiters were active in the wings.

Bank of America was the leading light in debt hiring. After recruiting five sales and trading specialists and a structurer to its European debt platform in January, it added another five staff to the London team last week.

The additions were: Piyanjali Abayaratna, Iftikhar Ali, Rommie Bhutani, Michael Coppock and Vincent Moge. Abayaratna joined the structured finance group from BNP Paribas. Coppock and Ali joined from Citigroup. Ali will head credit arbitrage for Europe and Asia; Coppock will take charge of financial institutions debt capital markets.

Bhutani joined from CSFB and will co-head financial sponsors and leveraged finance origination. Moge joined from CIBC World Markets and will be a senior salesperson in credit sales.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein poached Tom Burke from Lehman Brothers for its debt principal finance team. The team is run by Atul Baipai, Burke's former boss at Lehman.

Meanwhile, Bob Janjuah quit as head of credit strategy at ABN Amro. Sources close to him said he is joining Bear Stearns, which declined to comment.

The repercussions from the merger between Crédit Agricole Indosuez with the investment banking operations of Crédit Lyonnais continued. Calyon, the bank formed from the merger, appointed a new head of capital markets. Thierry Sciard, former head of fixed income at Crédit Agricole, assumed the role after the bank said Joël Jeuvell, a Crédit Lyonnais insider, resigned for personal reasons.

The appointment firmly tilted the balance of power in favour of Crédit Agricole veterans. Dominique Ferrero, another Crédit Lyonnais veteran, resigned three months ago as chairman of Calyon.

M&A activity took the form of hiring and reshuffling. Baird, the investment bank, hired Ian Williams from ABN Amro to co-head international M&A alongside Nick Sealy. Williams was co-head of ABN Amro's automotive group.

Merrill Lynch rearranged its European M&A coverage. The US bank appointed Pierro Novelli as head of Europe and Kevin Smith as head of UK. Smith joined Merrill from Lazard in 1996. Novelli joined Merrill in 1993 from Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino.

There were some high profile retirements. Brian Larcombe, chief executive of 3i, the venture capital and private equity firm, bowed out after 30 years with 3i and three years in the top position.

David Williams, founder and managing director of Glasgow Investment Managers, announced plans to retire later this year.