Broker BTIG has big plans to expand
Institutional broker BTIG has made a major new hire in Australia and is sounding out the employment market for other senior professionals to join its small, but growing, Sydney office.
Former Deutsche Bank banker Rod Skellet is joining the US firm to run its freshly opened options desk. BTIG Australia chief Paul Brech told the Australian that the local derivative markets has matured and he expects rapid growth of the options business.
BTIG, which opened in Sydney in 2008 and now has 12 staff, also wants to offer prime brokerage and fixed income services when there is sufficient demand. Brech expects this will mean doubling the company's existing headcount in the next 12 to 18 months. His emphasis will be on senior-level staff.
If the past is anything to go by, BTIG should be able to lure top bankers away from the big players. In November 2009, it hired four experienced bankers from Macquarie, UBS and Citi.
But this time round, with BTIG moving into other sectors, its recruitment drive might prove more challenging than last year. In fixed income, for example, it will be competing for talent with the Big Four, plus resurgent US banks such as Morgan Stanley and Citi.
"BTIG will have to prove that it can provide decent products, if it's going to attract high quality people. If you already have good products where you are, why would you move, especially if you're in a large investment bank?," comments Warren Price, managing director, Select Personnel.
Price believes that BTIG's managers will leverage their professional networks and try to take on people they have worked with before. "But BTIG will still need to compensate them well to make them come over. It's a tough market and we will see whether BTIG has deep enough pockets," he adds.
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