Barclays hired a senior healthcare analyst from BAML

Barclays has hired Steven Valiquette, a healthcare analyst with over a decade of experience, from Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML). He served as a managing director of healthcare distribution and a healthcare IT expert at BAML for a little less than two years.

Valiquette, who has joined Barclay in New York as a managing director, covers specialty pharmaceutical industry. After graduating from the University of Michigan in business administration, finance, and accounting in 1994, according to his LinkedIn profile, he moved into healthcare segment later, joining UBS as a managing director in mid-2007. He spent close to nine years at the Swiss bank as an expert in the healthcare industry, before leaving it to join BAML in 2016.

As a sell-side equity research analyst focused on healthcare, Valiquette covers one of the most important sectors. In 2017, Dealogic says healthcare was the second largest sector in the U.S. for M&A volume with 1,038 deals worth $271.7bn. It was also the fifth largest sector for North American M&A revenues, and the sixth largest sector for American investment banking revenues. It's no surprise, then, that banks are keen to increase their coverage of the healthcare and biotech space.

With the new hire, Barclays continues to strengthen its healthcare presence. In 2016 it hired two senior healthcare bankers, Jason Haas and David Levin from Deutsche Bank, as replacements for bankers who left for Credit Suisse a year earlier. David Lauffer, a senior Barclays healthcare banker, quit for RBC Capital Markets in March 2017. In May 2017, Barclays hired senior investment banker Joseph Hegner from Merrill Lynch, who specializes in hospital M&As and healthcare, for its Chicago office.

Valiquette's move comes as MiFID II regulations mean banks in Europe much charge separately for research. The move is expected to lead to increased demand (and pay) for top researchers whose opinions can command a premium.