RBC telecoms analysts move on to Goldman Sachs and Exane

Equity research analysts appear to be some of the most active movers in the City right now. While most investment bankers sit tight after the Brexit vote, MiFID II pressures at large firms are prompting many analysts to move on regardless.

Two telecoms-focused equity researchers have left RBC Capital Markets in London. San Dhillon, a director in European telecoms research at RBC, has joined Exane as an executive director. Meanwhile, Michael Bishop, who focused on telecom services at RBC, has just joined Goldman Sachs as an executive director.

Both Dhillon and Bishop joined RBC Capital Markets in August 2014, when the Canadian bank was making a big push to expand its London operation.

Jonathan Dann, a managing director at Barclays, joined RBC in August 2014 to lead its telecoms research division and set up building his team. Both Dhillon and Bishop were lifted out of Barclays at the same time.

Investment banks are now embroiled in a battle for top analysts in the build up to MiFID II, which will require banks to ‘unbundle’ its research costs for buy-side clients. Having star analysts on board is therefore important if banks need to charge directly for their research.

Both Bishop and Dhillon started their careers at Big Four professional services firms. Dhillon was an assistant manager at Deloitte before joining Barclays in 2009, while Bishop spent three years as an ACA-qualified accountant at PwC before joining Macquarie as an equity analyst in September 2008.

Exane has been slowly building out its London operation this year. As well as Dhillon, it hired Leigh Goodwin from RBC as a European banks analyst in January and Andrew Gwynn joined Exane’s equity research team last month as a food analyst.

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