BarCap raids senior banker at Rothschild
BARCLAYS Capital has poached a third senior banker from Rothschild’s financial institutions group (FIG) in the form of Ben Davey, a ten-year veteran of the firm.
Davey, who was one of three co-heads of Rothschild’s UK FIG team, becomes co-head of European FIG at BarCap.
He joins former colleague Stefano Marsaglia, who jumped ship from Rothschild last September after 17 years at the bank to become chairman of BarCap’s financial institutions group.
The appointment comes just weeks after Barclays poached another Rothschild banker, 37-year-old Michael Helou, who was the firm’s co-head of investment banking in the Middle East and North Africa.
Helou, who set up Rothschild’s Dubai office four years ago, is now driving FIG coverage at BarCap, including mergers and acquisitions advice and capital markets coverage for financial institutions.
Barclays has been on an aggressive recruiting drive for its investment banking division, as part of its aim to become a market-leading player in the sector after buying up the US operations of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
The bank’s 92 per cent surge in full-year profits last year was largely driven by strength in investment banking, led by president Bob Diamond, which contributed £2.5bn towards the group’s £11.6bn profit haul.
Barclays also received a £6.3bn boost from the sale of Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock in June last year.
Rothschild is not thought to have any immediate plans to replace Davey, leaving the running of the UK financial institutions group to the other co-heads Stephan Fox and Jonathan Eddis.