Piper Jaffray raids Nomura and ETrade

Piper Jaffray, the US investment bank, has hired 14 healthcare specialists in London following raids on Japanese rival Nomura and E*Trade, the UK online broker.

David Wilson, chief executive of Piper Jaffray's UK arm, said the majority of the hires came from Nomura and include Sam Fazeli and Julie Simmonds, two well-known biotech analysts at the Japanese bank.

Also joining from Nomura are David Rasouly, an investment banker, James Adams, an equity capital market specialist, and Jonathan Gosling an equity salesman.

Piper Jaffray said in a statement today that in total it had hired four investment bankers, two research analysts and eight sales and trading staff from Nomura and E*Trade.

Separately, Piper Jaffray has appointed David Phillips as managing director and head of US equity sales in London.

He joins from Raymond James, a financial advisory firm, and has previously worked at Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse First Boston and CIBC in London.