The battle of the boutiques

The launch of a new wholesale banking operation in Scotland is another example of financial services professionals attempting to kick-start the relatively muted corporate finance activity north of the border. And (limited) employment opportunities are emerging.

Inverleith Capital, a venture set up by former Noble Group employees David Ovens and Rory Boyd, is set for launch this year. The new bank will focus on encouraging more Scottish companies to list on the stock market, with Ovens blaming the lack of publicly quoted companies north of the border on the "advisory community".

It's very much a boutique operation, and Boyd tells us that this year is likely to be "one of establishment for us" and that recruitment opportunities will be limited.

"I'd expect our first recruit would be someone at a relatively junior level, probably no more senior than a newly qualified chartered accountant," he says.

But the establishment of Inverleith Capital is the latest in a series of examples of former Noble Group staff going their own way after its merger with London-based broker Execution last year. Having initially changed its name to Execution Noble, it rebranded again to Espirito Santo Investment Bank after the Lisbon-based Banco Espirito Santo acquired a 50.1% stake in the venture.

As well as Inverleith Capital, former Noble employees Henry Chaplin, Kathleen McLeay, Rose Colangeli and Rosanna Randall formed NCM Finance in 2009 and Paul Jourdan formed Amati Global Investors last year and has been steadily building its executive team.

Espirito Santo Investment Bank says it's been actively recruiting in Edinburgh to replace the departures, despite concerns the bank's business has been moving away from Scotland.

Of course, all of this doesn't necessarily spell huge amounts of hiring, particularly as the operations are so small. One financial services recruiter says that opportunities remain "limited and somewhat confined to an elite cadre of individuals".

But outside of the boutiques, the Big Four accounting firms are starting to build their corporate finance consulting divisions. Towards the end of 2010, much of the focus (understandably) was on building their restructuring divisions to capitalise on the struggles of Scottish companies.

Now, however, there are signs that M&A activity is picking up again north of the border after a lacklustre 2010. In December, law firm McGrigors said it had worked on transactions worth 700m during the month and tipped 2011 to bring a new wave of M&A activity.

Financial services recruiters are saying that initial indications point to a number of job opportunities in the corporate finance divisions of Big Four accounting firms in Scotland.