This private equity firm has been hiring Deutsche Bank juniors

Top investment banking analysts are, of course, prime targets for private equity, which tend to recruit off-cycle whenever the need arises. But one London-based buy-side firm has been targeting the junior staff of Deutsche Bank.

HG Capital has been taking on Deutsche Bank's junior investment banking analysts in the past few months. It's just hired Nika Kucifer, an analyst within Deutsche's industrials M&A team, who joined the private equity firm's investment team earlier this month. Kucifer worked at Deutsche for over two years, having previously interned with the bank in both London and Frankfurt. She has a first class degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College London.

Kucifer is not the only Deutsche junior to join HG Capital in recent months. Katrin Vatiska, who was an associate in the Nordic M&A team at Deutsche Bank, left to join HG Capital in November. She joined Deutsche Bank in September 2013, having previously completed a summer internship at the bank. Vatiska is working on HG Capital's mercury fund, which targets investments of less than £100m in the technology media and telecommunications (TMT) sectors.

André Hillenbrand, who was an associate in Deutsche Bank's TMT coverage team, also joined HG Capital last year. He joined Deutsche in 2013, and left after just four months as an associate.

HG Capital has around 100 employees across both UK and German offices. It has assets under management of £5.2bn and focuses on investments in TMT, services, industrials, and renewable energy.

Despite cutting back on bonuses across the board this year, Deutsche Bank has been making some efforts to retain its juniors. Deutsche pays £50k average salaries for analysts, according to figures from pay benchmarking website Emolument.com, which is among the highest of any investment bank in London. This rises to £80k at associate level.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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