BofA Merrill Lynch wants to grow in Africa

Bank of America Merrill Lynch is busy rebuilding its team in South Africa, planning to expand into the Continent and broadening the range of services it offers clients. Marcus Heilner, SA Ceo, says ML has the full backing of parent company Bank of America, which sees great potential in Africa and is therefore ready to invest. "We want to be a significant player in the market and we want to leverage the global network that comes with being associated with Bank of America," says Mr Heilner.

ML also wants "to expand into the rest of Africa and follow some of our clients in SA who are also expanding into the continent", says Mr Heilner, with Nigeria as a particular focus because "it is an interesting proposition and it will be bigger than SA from a fee income perspective in about ten years."

Elizabeth Wood, BofA enterprise and corporate banking spokeswoman, says it is too early to give precise details on the bank's strategy or recruitment policy in Africa. But experts on the ground say the shift is already noticeable, as ML plans to overtake rivals JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank and even challenge Citibank, which is by far South Africa's largest foreign bank, for the number one slot.

"Merrill Lynch is already recruiting actively at the moment," says Phryne Williams, director of Capital Assignments, a financial services recruiting firm.

Earlier this year ML lost two key people, co-Ceo Clifford Sacks and chief trader Tony Marcia, who left to join fast-growing Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital. Now ML has lured back Anthony Bor, who after twelve years as an analyst at the bank had left in 2006 to join Alliance Bernstein.

As the new head of equity research for ML SA, Mr Bor has been given the task of hiring analysts both inside and outside SA to add to research being offered to clients in response to their requests for more information about sectors and competitors.

"It is always good to hear that companies will invest in SA, however the market is really saturated with players in my opinion," says Ms Williams. "There is loads of research being offered to a dozen asset management companies."