US investment bank Merrill Lynch has reshuffled senior management in its Europe capital markets team, simplifying its structure and further integrating teams within equity and debt markets, a source familiar with the matter said on November 24.
The bank, which has developed a reputation among rivals for frequent management reshuffles, declined to comment about the changes, which were made late last week.
Flavio Valeri will become sole head of equity capital markets (ECM) within Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). His former co-head, Rupert Hume-Kendall, will become chairman of ECM in EMEA and vice-chairman of EMEA investment banking.
Mike Hammond, head of equity-linked securities, such as convertible bonds, will also become a senior banker for Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Cristina Garcia Peri continues as head of corporate equity derivatives but will report to Valeri.
Amir Hoveyda takes over as sole head of Debt Capital Markets in EMEA. His former co head of DCM, Spencer Lake, will lead corporate and public sector debt within this group. DCM has also been expanded to include asset and liability management and origination of principle trades.
Merrill Lynch is currently sixth in ECM in EMEA, according to data provider Dealogic. It has particular strengths in Italy and Britain and has recently been pushing its franchise into emerging markets.
The idea behind the moves was to further integrate teams within debt and within equity, so that bankers move across a range of financial products. The bank also wants to allow for greater co-ordination across the two on hybrid products where debt and equity overlap. The source said this month's changes were also aimed at simplifying the structure by whittling down the number of co-heads in capital markets. Creating one head allows for a clearer allocation of titles, he said.
Over the last five years, investment banks have tried to bring equity and debt capital markets bankers closer, and broaden expertise within the two so they can offer one service to companies.
Last October, Merrill Lynch created a global capital markets and financing group to combine debt and equity origination. The following month it completed what it described internally as being the last leg of the integration by dividing capital markets into new groups and a raft of job title reshuffles.
This month's changes are more about allocating responsibilities within debt and equity after the groups were brought closer together last year. Elsewhere, Merrill Lynch announced in June that its co-global head of mergers and acquisitions, Philip Yates, will quit the firm to pursue other interests, leaving Steve Baronoff, as sole head of M&A.
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