Broker snatches UBS credit team for European push
The UK subsidiary of a US electronic broker has hired a team of 10 credit salesmen and traders from UBS to run its European credit platform, in one of the biggest fixed-income team hires in the past two years.
In a statement, Knight Libertas, part of US broker Knight Capital Group, said it had hired 14 new sales, trading and research staff to establish its European credit sales and trading platform, led by Neil Robertson, who ran UK credit sales for UBS in London, as managing director and head of the business.
Robertson has been joined at Knight Libertas in London by nine of his UBS colleagues: Andrew Linford, James Holdsworth, Simon Marriott, Spencer Harman, Michael Levy, Nigel Perry, David Fenwick, Kayyor Rao, and Geoff Capell. All of them left UBS in March.
The other four hires are Tom Goodale from Calyon, the investment banking arm of France’s Crédit Agricole; Daniel Cohen from Morgan Stanely; Justin Perry from Lehman Brothers, Europe; and Andrew Carrie from UK alternatives manager, Cheyne Capital.
All of Libertas' new hires under Robertson are either directors or vice-presidents in the European credit and sales business apart from Capell, who is operations manager.
Gary Katcher, executive vice-president, head of global institutional fixed-income at Knight Capital Group in New York, said the European team complements its US franchise in investment grade and high-yield trading, sales and research, and that it will now be able to fully service its US and European clients’ cross-border activity.
Robertson added that this is the “beginning of our effort in Europe and we fully expect to continue to add staff in sales, trading, research and capital markets to meet client needs”.
UBS’ credit business has been hit hard by the crisis and series of senior departures this year.
However, UBS has made several key hires to bolster the division in recent months, the biggest being that of Rajeev Misra, the former global head of credit trading at Deutsche Bank and one of the most well regarded credit traders and structurers in the market. Misra joins UBS this summer as head of credit within the investment bank's fixed-income currencies and commodities division.
UBS has also hired Derrick Herndon as head of European credit trading, and made three new sales and trading hires across leveraged finance and high-yield bonds in the past few months.
Senior management in UBS are said to be fully committed to rebuilding a well-rounded credit sales and trading platform within the FICC division, across cash bond trading and in derivatives products.
UBS declined to comment.
--write to dkerr@efinancialnews.com
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