Barclays' ex-head of equity advisory has new job, is hiring

If you're an equities banker and are kicking your heels after the summer, at least one person out there is hiring.

Justin Shinebourne, the former chairman for equity advisory for Europe at Barclays, and an ex-head of equity advisory for Europe at Barclays and of European equity sales at HSBC and State Street, has just arrived at Finsbury, the PR firm.

There, he will be building out a new equity advisory practice. 

Today is Shinebourne's first day, so the new practice is just getting up and running, but it's understood that there's already another senior in the pipeline and that Shinebourne is working with some of Finsbury's existing institutional shareholder services staff and with its office in Frankfurt. 

Ultimately, it seems that Finbsury wants to build out a comprehensive equity advisory business to help clients on a retained basis, including those who are private and who are thinking of going public. Shinebourne, who has joined as a partner in London, will work on everything from IPOs to regular reporting and strategic projects, including perception studies, strategic reviews, positioning major M&A events, activism defence on governance, and defence against short attacks. 

It all sounds a little like corporate broking and the firm has big ambitions, although we understand that Finsbury isn't attempting to replicate the role of a bank. Shinebourne says the new business will be similar to corporate broking to the extent that it will offer support to clients on the basis of retained mandates. However, much of the work will be in Continental Europe, where corporate brokers don't exist.

"I’ve worked with Finsbury on a number of clients over recent years. There are great synergies in what we do. I really believe the business can flourish here," Shinebourne says.

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