Schonfeld hires Simon Silverston from AB Arya Partners for equity investments
Rich Messina’s Benchmark Company hires Ryan Dawson as MD, Equity Sales in New York
Morgan Stanley London hired Billy Keohane from JPM as EMEA head of market risk for credit and securitized products trading
Pretium staffs up for distressed debt
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Point72 Asset Management last month disbanded an experimental unit that married traditional stock analysis with systematic trading
The Stamford, Conn., company, which employs 1,500 people around the world, is trying to find placements for the unit’s 20 staff members, most likely within the firm’s discretionary long/short equity business. It’s unclear why Point72 shuttered the program, but the move was unrelated to the coronavirus related economic slowdown. Latitude, as the division was known, represented founder Steve Cohen’s trial with so-called quantamental strategies, which combine traditional stock analysis with computer driven investing. Latitude’s analysts provided fundamental stock research to a systematically-traded portfolio. The unit operated without a traditional portfolio manager. Formed several years ago under the initial moniker Idea Lab, the low-profile unit was rebranded Latitude in late 2018 by then-head Chris Coward in a bid to show it had shed its experimental status and established itself as a valued group within the firm. Coward, however, departed Point 72 in late 2019 and was replaced on an interim basis by Mark Flannery, a managing director who heads analysis of energy, consumer and financial stocks.
After the German bank closed its equities business one year ago this July, BNP swooped in and ostensibly rescued the electronic equities and prime brokerage business, which has been
'transitioning' across since February.
DB people have been arriving at the French bank, but not necessarily in the numbers expected.
Insiders say comparatively few of the Deutsche Bank arrivals are traders - but there are certainly some.
Mike Ross
,
Deutsche's former head of EMEA institutional equity derivatives and synthetic sales, turned up at BNP in February, as did Thomas Strenge, Deutsche's former co-head of German equities, and Nuveen Marwah, a New York MD in delta one trading. Jason Brahin, Deutsche's ex-New York head of delta one trading for the Americas, came in March, along with
Brian Fagen
,
Deutsche's former head of execution service sales. Ankur Taparia, a former DB Delta One Index trader, manifested himself at BNP in London in April. Paul Wood, an electronic execution trader arrived in May. Torsten Schoeneborn, Deutsche's former co-head of global electronic equities, is said to have moved across too, although it's not clear when.... While this might seem a substantial list, it's still only a fraction of DB's potential equity derivatives, electronic equities and prime broking bench. Instead of sales or trading, insiders many of the people who've migrated to BNP Paribas from DB instead work in technology, with DB's tech systems seeming to be the real focus of BNP's purchase.Andy West, Deutsche's former head of prime finance and electronic execution technology, is understood to have been one of the most pivotal hires: West arrived from Deutsche as global head of prime technology at BNP Paribas in February. BNP also took senior Deutsche Bank technologists like Andy Balls, who specializes in prime broking tech, Victor Kolesnikov, a senior software engineer, and Qing Wu - a director in prime technology at Deutsche in New York City. A raft of juniors are also understood to have moved across, with more to come as the migration is completed. BNP didn't respond to a request to comment on the number of people it's transplanting from DB, but insiders sugggest many Deutsche people are unwanted. Some, like Tom Campbell, went early to
Cowen
i
n London. Michael Barisonek left for
YK Asset Management
in January, Jennifer Xu became a portfolio manager at GIC in May. "There wasn't an obvious landing place for a lot of traders because BNPP already had people in similar roles," confesses one insider. It's been a difficult period. "I spent my career on Deutsche's equities desk," says a DB source. "And then, last year I watched it get decimated. Traders were given a vague promise of an offer from BNP Paribas, but nothing concrete and people were openly interviewing elsewhere. Very few people made it across in New York." It didn't help that Deutsche's equity derivatives books weren't originally included in BNP's purchase, so traders were initially moved to the
Capital Release Unit (CRU)
- but then BNP won that book anyway. The migration from Deutsche to BNP isn't over yet. Last month, BNP said the process of bringing the Deutsche prime brokerage business onboard will cost
€100m in restructuring costs
, which seems a lot when BNP's markets business went from a €252m profit to a -€17m loss in the first quarter.
Citigroup has created a new unit to help its investment bankers use big data to advise corporate finance clients, as large advisory firms increasingly turn to technology to automate parts of the dealmaking process.
The US bank has named Muir Paterson as head of a new division called strategy advisory solutions, which combines three business lines including its unit advising companies on how to defend against activist investors and its data science unit, according to a memo seen by Financial News. "Being able to produce analytics quickly, tailor insights to specific clients and support advice with differentiated data research will further distinguish Citi and empower bankers globally with new and impactful tools," the memo from investment banking bosses Tyler Dickson and Manolo Falco said. The new unit means that its financial strategy group, shareholder advisory and data science capabilities come together under one roof.
Paterson will work closely with Ajay Khorana, who still leads the financial strategy group and will also focus on key corporate finance clients. Citi said in the memo that it was aiming to become a top three "global corporate, capital markets and strategic advisory bank".
A shorter trading day could boost diversity and wellbeing among traders, in what has historically been a male-dominated profession, the majority of respondents have said in a consultation by the London Stock Exchange. The Association for Financial Markets in Europe and the Investment Association, in a joint response to the consultation, wrote that a shorter trading day would “improve flexibility for employees and would help to attract a more diverse range of individuals to enter trading floors”. They added that excessively long hours are a contributor to mental health issues in the sector. But respondents to the LSE’s survey also stressed that harmonisation of hours across European exchanges and trading venues is key to ensuring that the benefits are realised. The stock exchange
launched its consultation
on whether to cut trading hours in December. The results were originally set to be published in March, but the deadline was extended due to the Covid-19 crisis. Other stock exchange groups are currently conducting their own assessment of whether to shorten the trading day. Euronext, whose chief executive Stéphane Boujnah
has warned
that a shorter trading day could damage liquidity, launched a consultation in March, and recently extended its deadline for feedback to 30 June. Echoing Boujnah’s fears, some LSE respondents flagged “the potential for dislocation and additional market complexity if a trading venue were to reduce its trading hours independently”. The majority of respondents to the LSE’s consultation, however, did not see longer trading days as a benefit to liquidity at all. This view was “particularly strong” from investment managers, banks and agency brokers.
Most respondents believed shorter hours would improve liquidity, but few thought this would result in an increase in trading volumes. In something of a curve ball, a small number of respondents floated the idea of a “lunch break” as an alternative to a shorter trading day. The LSE also said that a number of respondents had flagged up concerns that shorter hours might limit the London markets’ global appeal. The exchange pointed to a recent study by Hardman & Co and Argus Vickers, which found that 49% of all stocks on the LSE are held by non-UK investors, and 69% of stocks in the FTSE 100.
Jefferies Financial Group Inc.
,
stung by the
poaching
of an entire investment banking team by
Cantor Fitzgerald LP
,
accused the brokerage of making a “concerted effort” to stop the ex-employees from repaying bonuses it says it’s due. Jefferies is embroiled in a legal
fight
with rival Cantor that stretches from New York to Hong Kong after 26 of its bankers joined the brokerage in late 2017. Details of the case were disclosed Tuesday after Cantor lost an attempt to have the London lawsuit set aside on jurisdiction grounds. The dispute stems from the resignation of the Jefferies employees, who almost all quit “on materially identical terms” at 11 a.m. London time on the same day in November 2017, according to the judge. A Jefferies lawyer said the firm believed Sage Kelly, its former star banker and now a senior executive at Cantor, was among those who lured the bankers and persuaded the team not to repay bonuses.The London lawsuit was brought against Cantor Fitzgerald’s global and Hong Kong operations as well as three former employees. The case is also being pursued in
Hong Kong
and in the U.S., where Jefferies has brought 10 cases before an American tribunal, according to the English judgment.
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DMC Partners has obtained all news updates from publicly accessible sources. This newsletter is not reflective of DMC Partners or its employees personal opinions. We have compiled all information from what we believe to be trustworthy sources yet we cannot guarantee accuracy. While we deem these articles to be reputable, in no event shall DMC be liable for any indirect or consequential damages that may arise in connection with the use of this information. This material may not be distributed, reproduced, or sold.
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