Renaissance Capital continues African hiring spree

Clifford Sacks has been a busy man since he was promoted to become Renaissance Capital's CEO of Africa in mid-January (whilst also retaining his position as CEO of South Africa and head of African Equities).

The former co-CEO of Merrill Lynch Africa joined the Russia-based group last year in order to turn it into the leading emerging markets investment bank. He's now working hard to achieve the materialization of that aspiration.

"Cliff is a seasoned African banker who understands well Renaissance's emerging and frontier-markets strategy", says Stephen Jennings, group CEO.

For this reason it seems. he has been given carte blanche to hire the talent he needs on the ground, no expenses spared. Like Olaleye Adekeye, who has left LiquidAfrica to join RenCap as Sub-Saharan Africa strategist and vice-president of the Research Group.

RenCap has also been beefing up its global cash equities team, hiring six senior traders: three, poached from Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, will be based in London and New York and three in Johannesburg. They are Cameron Macklin, an equity arbitrage trader who joins from Consilium Capital where he managed an arbitrage hedge fund; John Seheri, an equity trader who has worked for Noah Financial Innovation, Macquarie and Standard Corporate Merchant Bank; and Gran Nader, a derivatives trader who joins from Investec Bank where he was an expert at equity derivative structuring and sales.

"RenCap's operations in Africa continue to go from strength to strength, with cross-border deals flows both in Africa and between Africa and other geographic regions," says Sacks. "With six on-the-ground fully operational offices and over 120 people in Africa, we cover some of the most exciting markets in the world with strong local teams."

Recruitment experts expect RenCap to continue its hiring spree in the months to come. "Renaissance are still being very aggressive in the South African market," says Phryne Williams, managing director of Capital Assignments, a specialist financial services recruitment firm in Johannesburg. "They will continue to hire until they reach critical mass."