Aidan Allen leaving UBS

Expectations are that Aiden Allen will leave UBS to join New Zealand boutique banking group Jarden. Picture: AFP

UBS managing director Aidan Allen is leaving the Swiss investment bank.

It is understood that Mr Allen told UBS this week of his departure.

The expectation is he will be joining the New Zealand boutique banking group Jarden.

Mr Allen rejoined UBS in Australia almost two years ago after he left the bank to become head of investment banking in Australia at Citi.

He is regarded as a high-profile banker known for his close relationships with the private equity community and is considered something of a rainmaker when it comes to deal-making.

Last month, talk emerged that Mr Allen was within Jarden’s sights, although he denied at the time that he had fielded approaches, as reported by DataRoom.

Jarden has poached some of Australia’s best investment banking talent in recent months, and is understood to remain on the hunt for additional recruits.

DataRoom learned on Thursday that UBS analyst Kieren Chidgey is also leaving to join Jarden.

Analysts from various other Australian banking teams are said to be in its sights as it looks to build up its operations to become a dominant player in the local market after opening an office here last year.

Jarden shook up the local Australian market when it hired the former Goldman Sachs equity markets boss for Australia and New Zealand and ex-UBS operative Sarah Rennie and the former UBS global chairman of capital markets Robbie Vanderzeil.

Also hired for its new team was the former UBS equities syndicator John Spencer and ex UBS Australian equity capital markets boss Dane Fitzgibbon.

Aidan Allen is leaving UBS.

There are suggestions that global Goldman Sachs bankers Ian Taylor, based in New York and Duncan Stewart based in London – both Australians – could be in line for Ms Rennie’s former job at Goldman Sachs.

Movements around the investment banking scene have become a hot topic of conversation, with talk in the market last month that Matthew Grounds and his right-hand man at UBS for many years, Guy Fowler, were starting a rival firm in the space of weeks.

However, the thinking now is that plans to start a another banking or funds management outfit with Magellan Financial Group and British bank Barclays are on the backburner for the time being.

Now the likelihood is that the high-profile bankers could emerge back in the market with a new outfit late this year or in early 2021.

It will be interesting to see how far and wide they search for talent, with some wondering if they do not look too far from their former home.

Earlier, there was talk that as many as 50 UBS staff could be looking to join the venture headed by Mr Grounds and Fowler, although it is understood that they have poured cold water on this possibility.