Try BarCap if you want to work in M&A; try HSBC if you want to work in equities
We may be moving fast to the time when hiring locks down for the summer and doesn't reopen until the first quarter, but two institutions are still doing some big hiring for the front office. They are Barclays Capital and HSBC.
BarCap, which has been building an M&A business for the past 18 months, is still building an M&A business even now. Having poached Tom King from Citigroup as co-head of corporate finance last October, BarCap keeps on raiding Citi to build out its team. This week, it hired Reid Marsh and Thomas Demeure, the co-head of industrials and chairman of FIG at Citigroup respectively.
BarCap also poached three Citi investment bankers earlier in the month.
Headhunters say BarCap's M&A push isn't over yet. "They still have mandates out for senior M&A bankers," says one. "Hiring may slow down in the second half of the year, but they are certainly not full."
Meanwhile, HSBC continues to push ahead with growth plans in cash equities and ECM.
John Crompton, the former head of UKFI who joined HSBC in April as global head of ECM, told Financial News that the bank plans to become a, 'top tier player,' in equity capital markets. Globally, the bank ranked ninth in the first quarter according to Thomson Reuters.
HSBC is also building in equity research, sales and trading.
"HSBC has hired at least 20-25 people in cash equities this year," says the head of one search firm. "Including ECM, we're expecting them to double that before the year ends."
