Emerging markets drive securitisation hiring
Booming securitisation activity in Russia and Eastern Europe is fuelling demand for emerging markets securitisation specialists based out of London.
"Quite a few banks are building their emerging markets teams at the moment," says one City-based securitisation search consultant. "Merrill Lynch, Dresdner Kleinwort, HypoVereinsbank, Standard Charters and ABN AMRO are all hiring, while Deutsche Bank will look at this selectively."
Last month ABN AMRO transferred Gary Watmore, its former head of Asian asset backed securitisation, from its Singapore office to London. Watmore is tasked with building an emerging markets securitisation team covering Asia, CEEMEA and Latin America.
This week's edition of the International Financing Review highlights growth in Russian securitisation activity. The paper says securitisations in Russia have provided 528m ($US1bn) of bond business this year, and that issuance is likely to top 1.3bn by the year end. Up to a dozen deals are expected over the next 18 months.
Activity is also hotting up elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Last February ABN AMRO closed an 80m mortgage backed securitisation for Kazakhstan-based BTA Ipoteka, for example.
However, Shaun Springer, chief executive of search firm Napier Scott says a wave of securitisation hiring in Moscow itself isn't on the cards . "Russia is a growing market, but we're unlikely to see the kind of rush to hire that we've witnessed in Europe over the past five years. The securitisation market is growing from a very small base."
Separately, it seems that securitisation staff - and not just those in emerging market teams - are on track for generous bonuses this year. The Financial Times today reports that European issuance of securitised bonds was up 21.5% in the first six months of this year compared to the first six months of 2005.
"Just about every one of my clients has hit their budget already this year," says one headhunter. "ABS teams are doing better than ever before. Margins are still low, but higher volumes are more than offsetting this."
