UBS heavy-hitter has just quit to launch his own boutique

The former global head of consumer products and retail investment banking at UBS, Nick Hassall, has quit the bank to go it alone.

Senior investment bankers who have decades of deal experience are increasingly leaving bulge bracket firms to launch their own advisory firms. Hassall who moved to London from Hong Kong in 2012 to head up UBS's consumer and retail investment banking business, left in May after nearly ten years with the bank. He has just started Sequor Partners Limited, which is described as an 'advisory consultancy' focused on the consumer and retail sectors. Hassell joined UBS from Credit Suisse in 2008.

Hassall's role leading UBS's consumer and retail investment banking team in London was relatively short-lived - in 2014, it hired Ian Carnegie-Brown from Credit Suisse as head of consumer and retail team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Hassall remained in the UK, but was moved to a purely client-facing role within the same team.

Going it alone is the new thing among senior investment bankers looking to break free from the shackles of large investment banks. Most recently, James Simpson, the former co-head of advisory for EMEA at HSBC, teamed up with Matteo Canonaco, the former head of financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds and IPC coverage at the bank, to launch a private equity boutique called DuCanon Capital Partners. Meanwhile, Peter Bell, the former head of UK M&A at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, launched his own corporate finance boutique Cardean Bell in November and Mike Beadle, a managing director within Barclays’ UK investment banking team in London, started his own advisory firm Kinnerton Capital in March.

Peter Bacchus, the joint head of investment banking and global head of metals and mining at Jefferies, has also just launched his Bacchus Capital Advisors and added senior bankers to his team. Paul Cahill, a senior investment banker with 30 years' experience who was latterly head of strategic relationships management at Anglo American, and Chris Johannsen, a former managing director in metals and mining at Standard Chartered, are also managing directors and co-founders at the firm.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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