Lehman adds nine for investment banking

Lehman Brothers has boosted its investment banking team in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with nine hires including a new head of mergers and acquisitions.

Rudolf Woetzel joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was a managing director for six years in the global investment banking division. He joins Lehman in September as a managing director in the new role of head of German, Austrian and Swiss M&A.

Michael Bonacker also joins from Deutsche Bank where he was a managing director for five years in the financial institutions group. According to Lehman Brothers his clients at Deutsche included Allianz, the insurance giant, and Hannover Re, the re-insurer. He joins Lehman today as a managing director in investment banking covering financial and industrial clients.

Christian Karcher joins from Credit Suisse First Boston where he spent seven years, most recently as a managing director in German investment banking. Lehman said his clients included Deutsche Telekom and Eon and RWE, the utilities. He joins Lehman today as a managing director in investment banking focusing on telecom and power companies.

Lehman has also hired Gerd von Bassewitz and Till Reuter as executive directors; Matthias Lilienthal and Julian Schoof as directors and Holger Knittel and Malte Schwaner as associates in German investment banking.

All three will report to Jerry McConnell and Christian Meissner, co-heads of investment banking for Germany.

Lehman has about 100 staff in Germany with a further 50 covering Germany and Austrian markets from London. The nine new hires will be split between London, Frankfurt and other European offices.

In March Lehman hired Christian Spieler, a former banker at JP Morgan, as head of capital markets for Germany and Austria.