eFC Briefing: Moelis Adds, Fidelity May Cut

Big fund companies are weighing U.K. job cuts. Moelis announced key hires from Jefferies, and Citi hired a "productivity" chief for its institutional clients group.

Fund managers including Fidelity International are quietly weighing U.K. job reductions in anticipation the credit crunch will cut into their revenue. Fidelity said it's looking at savings that might include eliminating jobs either via layoffs or attrition, Financial News reports. However, any job cuts are unlikely to affect Fidelity's front-line fund management team. The story also noted that U.K. fund manager Henderson Global Investors expects to save 20 million ($39.44 million at Monday's exchange rate) this year through staff reductions. "There is not a fund manager in the City (of London) that is not doing this right now," Henderson Chief Executive Roger Yates told Financial News.

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Moelis & Co. hired three bankers from Jefferies & Co. - two co-heads of restructuring, and a third who will lead coverage of the automotive sector. Thane Carlston and William Derrough were joint heads of the recapitalization and restructuring group at Jefferies, where each worked for 10 years. Justin Mirro built Jefferies' franchise advising a broad range of automotive-related companies on deals and financing. An automotive engineer, Mirro was a design and manufacturing engineer for General Motors and Toyota before becoming a banker. All three appointments take effect in July.

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Morgan Stanley promoted Leslie Menkes to head of onshore private wealth management for all of Asia. He had headed private wealth management for Southeast Asia and Australia. He'll oversee expanding the business into new markets including India, where the bank plans an onshore launch "in the near future." He remains based in Singapore and will join Morgan Stanley's global private wealth management executive committee. Su-Shan Tan was hired to fill Menkes' former role as head of private wealth management for Southeast Asia and Australia. She was Citi Private Bank's head of Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei since 2005, and previously spent eight years with Morgan Stanley.

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Citigroup hired Mark Rufeh from Credit Suisse as chief administrative officer and head of productivity for its institutional clients group. In the new role, he'll oversee operations, technology, real estate, procurement and corporate services functions, and lead efficiency programs and management of the cost base. Rufeh was the chief administrative officer for the investment banking division of Credit Suisse Group. He previously headed the Westchester Capital Group, a private equity firm, and spent 15 years with Lehman Brothers.

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Citi also hired Alan Pace to lead its Americas prime brokerage unit, according to an internal memo published by the New York Times. A former veteran prime brokerage executive with Lehman Brothers, he spent the past six months as interim president of the Real Salt Lake soccer franchise. He takes over a job vacated last month when the bank dismissed Ali Hackett and Tom Tesauro as co-heads of global prime brokerage, part of a wider shakeup that installed Nick Roe as sole leader, based in London.

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Merrill Lynch hired investment banker Adriano Borges to run its Brazilian financial institutions group and real estate sectors. The move continues an expansion begun in March when Merrill hired nine Brazil bankers. Borges came from Credit Suisse Brasil where he was a senior banker responsible for originating and executing several landmark equity, debt and M&A transactions over the last three years, according to Merrill.

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Four Credit Suisse executives were named co-heads of global securities, a major segment of the investment bank. As reported by Financial News, the elevation of Gael de Boissard, Tony Ehinger, Steve Kantor and Jonathan McHardy follows the departure of Michael Ryan, an ex-Goldman Sachs partner who joined Credit Suisse a year ago to oversee both equity and fixed-income businesses. The reason for Ryan's departure wasn't disclosed.

Separately, Credit Suisse named Fan Cheuk Wan head of private banking research Asia Pacific, responsible for driving research across all asset classes in the region. Based in Hong Kong, she was head of Asia Pacific equity research for the private banking division. Before joining the bank in October 2006, she headed China equity research at ABN Amro.