The Wall Street Job Report

JP Morgan 1st But Deutsche Bank, Barclays Gain In Ranking

Liz Moyer, Dow Jones Newswires, December 21, 2010

Deutsche Bank Ag and Barclays PLC are reaping the benefits of the vacuum created two years ago when three major U.S. investment banks were wiped off the map.

Both European banks made double-digit percentage revenue gains from global investment-banking activities in 2010, according to preliminary year-end data by Dealogic. Meanwhile, their major U.S. competitors, J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., while holding to their first- and third-place rankings, respectively, had declining revenue and market shares from the year before.

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Barclays Profit Declines 76%, Says Capital Remains `Strong'

Robert Diamond

Jon Menon and Gavin Finch, Bloomberg News, November 9, 2010

Barclays Plc, Britain’s third-largest bank, said its capital ratio remained “strong” as quarterly profit fell 76 percent on lower revenue at the investment banking unit.

Pretax profit in the three months to Sept. 30 dropped to 327 million pounds ($527 million) from 1.36 billion pounds in the year-earlier period, the London-based company said today in a statement, missing the 797 million-pound median estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit formerly led by Chief Executive Officer- designate Robert Diamond, posted a pretax loss of 182 million pounds from a profit of 369 million pounds.

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BP Hirings at Barclays: Building Up an Energy Team

The New York Times, September 10, 2010

Barclays Capital has hired seven sales executives from BP, in a move meant to bolster its energy trading business in North America, according to an internal memorandum obtained by DealBook.

The hirings are part of Barclays’ effort to expand its physical trading business and better compete against the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. (Read the memoafter the jump.)

Troy Black and Paul Dunsmore will become managing directors in the United States energy sales, exploration and production team, according to the memo from Roger Jones, head of commodities, and Craig Shapiro, head of commodities distribution.

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Diamond to be new head of Barclays

Bob Diamond (above)

Patrick Jenkins, Financial Times, September 7, 2010

Barclays on Tuesday confirmed Bob Diamond, head of its fast-growing investment bank, as its next chief executive.

Mr. Diamond, who runs BarCap from New York but will move back to London to take up his new post, will be paid an annual salary of £1.35m, up from the current £250,000. His annual bonus will be two and a half times his salary – £3.37m – and he will also receive a long-term incentive plan of five times his salary.

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Peek Returns to Banking With New Job at Barclays

Jeffrey Peek (above)

The New York Times, September 8, 2010

Jeffrey M. Peek, the chief executive who built up the CIT Group, only to see it nearly capsize during the financial crisis, has returned to his investment banking roots with his latest job.

Mr. Peek will join Barclays Capital as a vice chairman in its investment banking division, the firm announced on Wednesday. He will advise clients across the firm, with an emphasis on financial services firms, and will report to global investment banking head Skip McGee.

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Has the casino swallowed Barclays?

Robert Peston, BBC.co.uk, September 7, 2010

I asked a leading member of the government what he thought about Bob Diamond's appointment as chief executive of Barclays.

"Bank taken over by casino," he said. Which implies he has the odd reservation about the rise and rise of Mr Diamond.

This is not to suggest that he and his ministerial colleagues are implacably opposed to all bankers.

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Barclays Elevates Diamond to C.E.O.

Robert Diamond (above)

Julia Werdigier and Michael J. De La Merced, The New York Times, September 7, 2010

LONDON — Barclays on Tuesday named Robert E. Diamond Jr. to become its next chief executive, succeeding John Varley, as the British bank seeks to keep up its rapid growth amid tougher competition.

Mr. Diamond, 59, helped turn Barclays into a global brand with the acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ operation in the United States. A charismatic American, he was equally responsible for much of the bank’s international and financial growth in the last decade.

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MOVES-Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Barclays Wealth, Threadneedle

 The following financial services industry appointments were announced on Wednesday.

DEUTSCHE BANK AG

Deutsche bank said it established an Asian equity strategy team and appointed Ajay Kapur as its head and managing director. Also appointed to the team are Priscilla Luk as director and Ritesh Samadhiya as vice president.

Kapur will be based in Hong Kong and joins from First Horse Capital. Luk and Samadhiya both join from Mirae Asset Securities. Separately, the bank's Deutsche Securities Inc unit appointed Masao Muraki to its global markets research department as director and senior analyst for the insurance & securities sector, effective Sept. 1.

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Barclays Capital: To Split or Not to Split?

The New York Times, July 13, 2010

Should Barclays be thinking about spinning off its investment bank?

Following a report last week from an analyst at Mediobanca Securities, which said that the bank should evaluate separating its Barclays Capital in order to boost its share price, other analysts and industry observers have taken a closer look at the proposal.

The Mediobanca analyst, Christopher Wheeler, suggested that Barclays could lift its shares by as much as 39 percent through a spin off of its investment bank and wealth management unit, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

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Barclays Poaches 2 Senior Industrials Bankers

The New York Times, June 30, 2010

Barclays Capital on Wednesday said it has hired two senior industrials bankers from Citigroup and Credit Suisse, as the British bank continues to expand its investment banking operations in the wake of acquiring the bulk of Lehman Brothers‘ North American banking operations in 2008.

The bank said it has hired Reid Marsh of Citigroup, as the chairman of its global industrials group, and Lawrence Hamdan of Credit Suisse as an executive chairman of global mergers and acquisitions and the head of global industrials M.&A. Both are expected to join in mid-September.

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BarCap takes Citi trio; Citi also makes hires

Quentin Webb, Reuters, June 3, 2010

(Reuters) - Barclays Capital has poached a trio of senior investment bankers from Citigroup (C.N) in London, while Citi has made three senior hires of its own.

BarCap has hired technology, media and telecommunications banker Matthew Smith, private-equity specialist Ken McGrath and regional banking co-chief operating officer Richard Blackburn, people familiar with the matter said.

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Morgan Stanley Hires Advisers From UBS, Barclays

Reuters, The New York Times, May 27, 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Smith Barney hired a pair of top financial advisers from UBS, and also added advisers from Barclays Wealth to focus on Latin American markets.

Shannon Brightman and Steve Peet joined the company's Park Avenue, New York City office last Friday. Peet spent a decade at UBS, while Brightman spent four years at the company, according to FINRA filings.

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Barclays Falls as Investment Banking Misses Estimates (Update1)

Jon Menon and Andrew MacAskill, Bloomberg, April 30, 2010

April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc, the U.K.’s third- largest bank by assets, fell in London trading after first- quarter investment banking revenue dropped more than estimated.

Revenue at the Barclays Capital unit slumped 26 percent to 3.8 billion pounds ($5.8 billion) for the three months to March 31, missing the 4.9 billion-pound estimate of analyst Mark Phin at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Ltd. The shares declined the most in 12 weeks.

“We are skeptical about continued growth at Barclays Capital,” wrote Bruce Packard, a London-based analyst at Seymour Pierce, with a “sell” recommendation on the stock. Fixed-income bankers “have worked hard to perpetuate the scientific nonsense of everlasting, compounding growth.” 

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Barclays Sued By Headhunter for Merrill Hire Payment (Update1)

Andrea Tan, Bloomberg, April 21, 2010

(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc was sued in Singapore for failing to pay Pagoda Partners Pte. S$365,000 ($266,000) after Britain’s second-largest bank hired Timothy Last from Merrill Lynch & Co. on the recruitment firm’s recommendation.

Barclays was “unjustly enriched” by Pagoda after the headhunter sent the bank Last’s resume in January 2009 and wasn’t paid, according to documents filed with the Singapore High Court. A pre-trial hearing was held on April 19.

Last, Barclays Capital’s head of equity derivatives flow sales for Asia, excluding Japan, was hired as a direct referral after Pagoda failed to set up a meeting, Barclays’s lawyers from Straits Law LLC said in the court filing. “There was never any agreement for the engagement of” Pagoda, Barclays said.

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Lehman Says Barclays Got $13 Billion Windfall In Sale

By Reuters for The New York Times, March 18, 2010

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc fired new allegations at Barclays Capital Inc on Thursday, saying the British investment bank got a $13 billion "windfall" profit from its deal to buy Lehman's U.S. brokerage in September 2008.

In documents filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, Lehman claimed new evidence showed that, while Barclays said it had a "day one" accounting gain of $4.2 billion on the Lehman acquisition, in reality it received a $13 billion windfall "immediately upon acquisition."

Lehman filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, the largest U.S. bankruptcy filing in history. Its flagship U.S. brokerage business was sold to Barclays for about $1.85 billion less than a week later in a hurriedly arranged deal.

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