Berenberg is busy hiring analysts from larger investment banks, taking advantage of their retreat from equity research as MiFID II looms. Its most recent recruit is Chris Turner, Goldman Sachs’ lead analyst for asset management and exchanges.
Sources say Turner, an executive director in equity research at Goldman who built out the coverage of its diversified financial stocks – mainly asset managers and stock exchanges – is set to join Berenberg in a similar role next week.
He spent over ten years at Goldman Sachs within its speciality finance research division, and was its only analyst covering the asset management and exchanges at the bank.
“Big banks tend to suspend research coverage whenever there’s an M&A deal in which they’re involved, which is precisely when the buy-side needs it most. This will be a big problem under MiFID II when buy-side clients are paying for research directly,” says another bulge bracket analyst who switched to a smaller bank recently. “Asset managers and exchanges are consolidating rapidly and investors are going to find that good research isn’t available through big banks with M&A businesses.”
He contends that analysts are therefore better off working for independent firms without this M&A conflict. Meanwhile, big banks will need to chip away at their analyst ranks even more. “Under MiFID II, the buy-side will want one analyst who covers a sector globally, rather than patching together two or three regional analysts,” says the analyst. “Researchers are safer in a privately-owned firm who can take a longer term view, rather than relying on quarterly revenues.”
Berenberg has certainly continued its push to hoover up analysts in London in a recruitment drive that’s been ongoing for 18 months. In May, it hired Charles Weston, who was CFO at biotech firm Genomics, as a senior analyst along with Ian Osburn from Cantor Fitzgerald and four other mid-market analysts, according to Reuters.
David Mortlock, Berenberg’s head of corporate and investment banking in the UK told us previously that it planned to add five-10 people for its UK corporate business this year, and that it had upped its graduate recruitment to 25-30 starting in October.
Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com
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