Swiss brokerage chief sheds light on hiring market
Vontobel, the Swiss financial institution best known for its private banking business, has doubled the size of its London equity brokerage team and is planning on expanding further, according to the firm's London chief, who shed light on the difficulties of hiring in a resurgent market.
The firm, which lists the wealthy Vontobel family and the Vontobel Foundation as majority shareholders, announced yesterday that it had added three new hires to its brokerage business in London.
Matthew Thomas has joined as head of sales trading to UK clients from Cheuvreux, while Stuart McCandlish joins from the same firm as a senior salesman. Leland Timblick joins as a senior salesman from Bank AM Bellevue.
The hires double the firm's existing equities brokerage team based in London, with Robin Bagchi, managing director of the London branch, dubbing the trio as "key to the development of Vontobel's equities franchise in the UK".
Speaking to Financial News, Bagchi shed light on the increasing difficulty in hiring, the prospect of new additions, and why it has picked now to expand.
He said: "We wanted to make some hires before the end of the year because we're very committed to building up the London team. I didn't want to wait until next April to make the hires, and I think we will be looking to make some more hires in the New Year."
He added that the hiring market had grown tighter in recent months, as bulge bracket-rivals bounced back from the tribulations of the credit crunch. He said: "It is tough to find good people so we are delighted with our new hires - back in March there were a number of people on the market but the quality was varied. That isn't the case now."
Having successfully lured the trio away from their former employers, Bagchi is confident they could bring their revenue with them.
He said: "The new hires have strong contacts with top tier clients, and we believe that they will be able to bring their revenue over. Given our leading research and execution capabilities, we see no reason why they wouldn't be able to 100% transfer the revenue over. The support from the client base has already been strong."
-- write to mturner@efinancialnews.com
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