Expansionary French bank hired a head of hedge fund sales in London

If you believe Chirantan Barua, equities analyst at Bernstein Research in London, equities businesses are in for a tough time. At key players like UBS, Barua thinks equities revenues will decline by around 20% this year, barely recover in 2017, and only bounce back a year later. This isn't dissuading one French bank from beefing up its equities team in London.

As we've variously noted over the past few months, Exane BNP Paribas has been hiring in equity research.  Since June, the French bank - a partnership between Exane and BNP, has recruited at least eight equity researchers, plus an equity sales trader. Now it's done it again, hiring Dina Geha as global head of hedge funds from HSBC.

One of the most senior women in London hedge fund sales, Geha joined Exane in August after two years at HSBC. Prior to that, she spent six years at BAML and four years at Credit Suisse.

Geha's exit from HSBC comes after the London-based bank had an abnormally bad second quarter in equities trading: equities revenues at the bank declined by 46% compared to declines of around 30% at Barclays, Deutsche Bank and SocGen.

Exane was unable to immediately comment on Geha's appointment. The French banks seems to have a thing for hiring from HSBC: it recruited HSBC junior George Allcroft in June.