Goldman Sachs just hired a Nomura analyst into its PE group

Going from Nomura's London investment banking division (IBD) to IBD at Goldman Sachs would count as an achievement. The Japanese bank ranked outside the top ten for M&A fees in Europe in the first half of this year according to Dealogic, while Goldman ranked third. It's impressive, therefore, that a Nomura London analyst has not only moved across to Goldman, but moved into one of the U.S. bank's most popular teams.

Yaajan Govindia, an analyst who spent just 12 months at Nomura after graduating from the London School of Economics, has just joined Goldman's alternative investments and manager selection (AIMS) private equity (PE) group in London. The group provides Goldman's clients with advice relating to investment in private equity funds, including due diligence on PE fund managers, portfolio construction, risk management, and liquidity solutions.

Plenty of Goldman's own analysts might like to shift internally into this group themselves. Govindia, however, has beaten them to it. The move is likely to leave him well placed to move to the buy-side in future, particularly to a fund of private equity funds which allocates money across the private equity industry.

Govindia's move underscores the resilience of junior banking careers. He joined Nomura in 2016 after competing an internship at Deutsche Bank the previous summer. Although Nomura isn't typically considered a top tier (or even a second tier) investment bank, his time at the Japanese bank hasn't precluded a move to Goldman. Just because you don't join a top tier bank out of university, you shouldn't therefore give up on that aspiration. Of course, it probably helps that Govindia achieved a first class degree in economics from the LSE and graduated one of the top in his class.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com