Six new financial services firms that could provide career opportunities

If you’re looking for work outside the mainstream financial sector, and perhaps want to be reunited with former bulge bracket bankers, it’s worth keeping an eye on the new firms being given approval by the UK regulator. Below, courtesy of M&A boutique IMAS, are our pick of the new companies from December and January.

1. REcore London

A niche real estate investment company focusing on the ‘core plus’ part of the Central London market, RECore current has four investment management veterans running the show. Richard Linnell, formerly head of asset and investment management at London & Regional Properties; Jonathan Evans, who worked with Linnell at Land Securities; chief operating officer, Andrew Homewood and Will Winsauer, who is responsible for investor relations and fund-raising comprise the team.

2. 80 Capital

80 Capital is the new CTA of Philippe Azoulay, the former head of quantitative trading at Deutsche Bank. He officially started the hedge fund after leaving the bank last year, but has just received FCA approval. According to Financial News, he’s in the process of raising $250m for a launch later this year.

3. Aleph Capital

Hugues Lepic, a former Goldman Sachs partner, retired from the bank in 2012 after 22 years and announced plans to start Aleph Capital last year. The private equity firm, which focuses on investments in Western Europe, has just received FCA approval. Ben Freeman joined as chief financial officer from Bridgepoint, while Manish Sharma is a director and former JPMorgan M&A banker Christian Loelke is an associate.

4. Cyan Oak Capital

Yannick Mallegol is known for more than just his financial expertise – the former head of equity derivatives slow sales at Barclays is also a professional Ferrari racer. However, he left the bank in 2011 and has just started Cyan Oak Capital, a global equity derivatives opportunity fund alone with Thomas Vergnaud, the former head of over the counter vanilla and prop trading at Dresdner Kleinwort and Matthieu Prevot an ex-equity derivatives trader at BBVA.

5. Sibyl Trading

Sibyl Trading has been running since 2012, but has only just been given the official thumbs up by the regulator. It boasts some impressive names on its books, notably Shretan Dholakia, former head of EMEA convertable bond trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, along with former Merrill and Credit Suisse employees. It is a low latency options prop trading firm.

 6. Kingdom Futures

Kingdom is a commodity trading brokerage set up by metal trading veterans Malcolm Freeman and Jasmin Heyer in 2012, but has just been given FCA approval. It’s currently in the process of building its team and is set to announce new hires in the near future, says Freeman.