M&A advisor leaves London-based Merrill Lynch team
M&A advisor leaves London-based Merrill Lynch team
29 Apr 2008
A talented UK mergers and acquisitions adviser has left Merrill Lynch as the US bank initiates job cuts in its London-based investment banking team as part of a global redundancy program.
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Charles Roast, who Merrill identified as one of the UK’s most promising investment bankers when it recruited him, has left 18 months after joining the US bank.
Roast was a specialist mergers and acquisitions advisor to consumer companies and private equity firms at Deutsche Bank before quitting to join Merrill Lynch in November 2006.
At Merrill, he reported to head of UK investment banking Simon Mackenzie-Smith and his remit was to build up the bank’s UK client base.
One banking source said: “Charlie was a good banker. This is just a case of last in, first out.”
Merrill Lynch declined to comment.
Merrill Lynch has said it plans to cut 4,000 jobs worldwide this year. The bank has culled 1,100 staff in the US since the start of this year after taking massive writedowns and making a year-end financial loss following the credit crunch.
The job cuts are part of a program instigated by John Thain, who was appointed as chief executive to replace the ousted Stan O’Neal last November.
The bulk of the redundancies are expected to fall within the bank’s fixed-income division, where most of the losses were made, but the departure of Roast shows that more traditional and profitable businesses are also being affected.
The upheaval has also prompted some bankers to resign.
Financial News revealed yesterday that two of Merrill’s top credit bankers, Atanas Bostandjiev, head of rates sales, and Antonio Esteves, head of credit sales, quit last week to join Goldman Sachs.
In a related move, Merrill Lynch Canada parted ways with two research analysts, amid speculation the departures are part of the dealer’s cost-cutting efforts, reported Dow Jones Newswires. Dow Jones is the parent company of Financial News.
The departed analysts are Toronto-based Hari Sambasivam, who covered the Canadian biotechnology sector, and Montreal-based Patricia Baker, who covered consumer products and merchandising stocks.
http://www.financialnews-us.com/?page=ushome&contentid=2450516094