Eight new London finance firms where bankers and traders may find jobs

With large financial institutions cutting  jobs, financial professionals are considering opportunities in boutique operations.

Traders are launching their own hedge funds and investment bankers are looking to private equity and consulting work for new opportunities. Here are eight firms newly-registered with the UK Financial Services Authority and featured on the monthly update from IMAS Corporate Finance. Some are likely hiring.

1. Ancora Finance

Thomas Puetter, former chief executive of private equity at Allianz Capital Partners, the firm’s private equity division, has set up Ancora Finance Group. He is currently the only registered employee at the firm, which (according to his profile) is engaged in a number of “activities in the consulting and alternative asset investment spheres”.

2. Arle Capital Partners

Arle was actually established in 2011, but recently re-registered with the FSA. The firm has 19 employees and is run by John Arney, a former J.P. Morgan Partners director who was most recently managing partner at Candover Partners. It has been picking up former investment bankers including Julian Ameler, an investment executive who joined Arle in October last year from the industrials M&A team at UBS, Merieke Christmann who came from Credit Suisse in October, Senka Jeremic who was recruited from Bank of America Merrill Lynch in February 2012.

It appears to still have an appetite to hire, having added former Deutsche Bank managing director, Quentin Nason, as a partner in investor relations in February.

3. Atreaus Capital

Atreaus Capital is a New York-based macro hedge fund set up by a number of former Barclays Capital prop traders, which gained FSA approval on 26 February. Todd Edgar, former global head of macro trading at Barclays, Sinan Gusmusdis, a former MD at the bank, Michael Ridewood, Peter Buschmann and Dmitri Shklovsky are all managing partners. All five are Barclays alumni, but Andrew Downes, who is also a partner, joins from UBS as chief operating officer.

4. Camares Capital

Former head of flow-credit trading at Deutsche Bank, Antoine Cornut, left the bank in July last year and has officially launched hedge fund Camares Capital in March having received $100-200m in seed capital. Askin Aziz and Julien Marie, also former traders at Deutsche, have joined the hedge fund and it will eventually have a staff of around 10 people, according to Bloomberg. Marc Sharman, co-founder and head of operations at macro fund Stoneworks Asset Management, has joined as chief administrative officer.

5. Cluny Capital

Cluny Capital is a new hedge fund led by marketing expert Fiona MacPherson, who was most recently at Mica Creek Capital Advisors, and formerly with Forex Capital Management. The only other current employee is Timothy Orchard, an ex-UBS equity trader and a former partner at Zebedee Capital Partners and Boyer Allan Investment Management.

6. Hooper Corporate Finance

Nicholas Hooper, who clearly enjoys fishing, quit his role as senior portfolio manager for wealth manager Credo Group after nine years to launch boutique advisory firm Hooper Corporate Finance. He is currently the only employee.

7. Hutchin Hill UK

Hutchin Hill Capital, the New York-based quantitative hedge fund set up by former Goldman Sachs portfolio manager Neil A. Chriss in 2008 has opened a UK branch. It’s run by Eton Park and Falcon Edge Capital veteran Damien Charveriat, while James McGovern, chief compliance officer at Hutchin Hill and Michael Merenda are also registered with the FSA.

8. Molton Street Capital

Mohammed Jamal, CEO at Molton Street Capital, has a background in CDO prop trading at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, but until he launched the new firm this year he was lecturing at Ecole Centrale Paris. The firm focuses on mortgage-backed securities, collateralised debt obligations and other structured products now commonly associated with the 2008 credit crisis.

Jamal is joined by co-founder Vikas Chauhan and Rajat Rohailla, a former UBS and Dresdner Kleinwort investment banker who was most recenting trading structured credit instruments at Resource America Inc.