Job Wrap: Blackstone hires in distressed debt; Hicks Muse sips from Bacardi

There were a handful of private equity hires in Europe last week. The Blackstone Group strengthened its distressed debt group, formed at the end of last year to take advantage of bad loans on the continent. Hicks Muse Europe added to its European investment team with two senior figures from the consumer sector.

Jeremiah Keefe and Il Lee joined Blackstone as principals in the distressed debt team. Keefe was director of European distressed debt research at Deutsche Bank. Lee was vice president at Harbert Management Corporation, a distressed debt-focused hedge fund.

Javier Ferran joins Hicks Muse as a director from Bacardi Limited, the drinks group, where he was president and chief executive. George Sewell joins the fund as a director from Quaker Oats, where he was president of Quaker European foods.

Change Capital Partners, the private equity firm founded by Luc Vandevelde former chairman and CEO of Marks & Spencer, appointed Stephan Lobmeyr as a fourth partner. Lobmeyer joins from Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, where he was a director.

Fund management: De Wit joins F&C

F&C Asset Management appointed Jacob de Wit as head of fixed income. De Wit joined from SNS Asset Management, a Dutch rival. F&C said his appointment followed the decision by Helene Williamson, current head of fixed-income, to focus on investment management and assume the role of head of emerging debt.

Mellon Financial Corporation appointed Jon Little and Helena Morrissey as co-chairs of Mellon Europe. Morrissey is chief executive of Newton Investment Management and Little is chief executive of Mellon Global Investments. Both will retain their existing roles.

Mark Holden, manager of Threadneedle Investments Select Growth and Accelerando Funds, has left the company. In the year ending March 2005 his funds were in the bottom five of the 295 UK All Companies sector.

Capital markets and investment banking: Lehman takes a bite of Apffel

Lehman Brothers hired Arnaud Apffel from Goldman Sachs as managing director in the investment banking division. Apffel will assume the role of co-head of European equity corporate derivatives.

Citigroup hired Crispin Osborne as a managing director in equity capital markets from Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB).

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, the US broker and investment bank, hired John Mason as a director of sales in its London office. Mason joins from Citigroup global markets where he was head of equity sales.

Andrew Lockhart, the German head of equity research at DrKW, left the bank. His was the fourth senior departure in a month. Dresdner replaced him with Kai Kaufmann, an internet and satellite services analyst who will move from London to Frankfurt.

Merrill strengths strategy team

Merrill Lynch strengthened its sales force advising on pension funding and finance issues with five additional hires. Gareth Derbyshire, executive director at Morgan Stanley and number two at the firm's European Pensions Group joins in a similar role. Kristof Neys is joining Merrill from UBS to specialise in asset liability management for pension funds in the Netherlands. Vasco Santos Serpa joins from Banco Espirito Santo to become a vice president in Madrid focusing on financial institutions in Iberia. Constantine Contagoulas joins from Deutsche Bank to market derivatives in Greece. Luigi Trovato, who formerly worked in derivatives sales at UBS in London, joined as a director covering financial institutions in Italy.

Optimism in the financial services sector increases

The number of jobs in the UK's financial services sector is set to increase over the next three months at the fastest rate since records began, a survey published in The Times suggests.

The CBI's Financial Services Survey, which polls bankers, fund managers and traders each quarter, reports that 53% of companies in March expected employment to rise over the coming quarter while only 5% predicted a fall. The balance of 48% was the most positive since 1989.

The most optimistic group were fund managers, with a balance of 61% expecting growth, followed by securities traders and bankers. General insurers recorded a drop in sentiment.