The remarkable revival of financial sponsors bankers and leveraged financiers
If proof were needed that banking is a cyclical industry and today's lemons will be tomorrow's strawberry pavlovas, leveraged financiers and financial sponsors bankers are it.
18 months ago they were virtually unemployable. Today, no one can get enough of them.
"Leveraged finance headcount was cut by 50-60% at most places, sometimes more," says Lee Thacker, head of the global markets practice at search firm Sheffield Haworth. "There's now a lot of hiring as firms seek to rebuild, particularly on the capital markets side."
Another leveraged finance headhunter is more succinct: "The market's back. Everyone's hiring."
Hence Credit Suisse is said to have poached Victor Gordillo from Nomura for leveraged loans, Nomura has extracted Peter Hurd from Amsterdam Capital, and UBS is said to have hired Alison Howe, formerly of Goldman Sachs. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has hired two for leveraged credit sales,
The enthusiasm for leveraged financiers is matched only by the resurgent interest in financial sponsors bankers. They too were major casualties of the downturn, with sponsor teams reputedly cut by 50%+.
BofA Merrill announced the appointment of Rob Firth from Deutsche earlier this month as head of European financial sponsors, with a buildout expected once Firth arrives. HSBC is said to be looking for financial sponsors bankers too, while Deutsche - which recently appointed a new global head of financial sponsors, is likely rebuild to covers Firth's absence.
Even more encouragingly, some of those now being picked up spent large amounts of time out of the market. Alison Howe, for example, appears to have left Goldman in
The source of the leveraged finance comeback is fairly clear: figures from Dealogic show European leveraged loans total $6.2bn so far this year. Last year, the comparable figure was $885m.
