Credit Suisse investment banking boss heads to Macquarie Capital

Credit Suisse Australia investment banking head Dragi Ristevski. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis

Macquarie Capital has hired the Credit Suisse Australia investment banking and capital markets head Dragi Ristevski to bolster its private equity ranks.

It comes after DataRoom revealed last month, Macquarie Capital had held talks with a senior banker at the Australian arm of Credit Suisse about taking on a role as a senior adviser to boost its private equity investment banking capabilities, who at the time was understood to be Mr Ristevski.

Mr Ristevski will be taking on the role as Head of Financial Sponsors, Asia Pacific, returning to the bank where he was once among its ranks.

Sources say that the Australian listed bank has been looking to fill the position for some time, allowing the investment bank’s current private equity head, Jeremy Tasker, to focus more on direct investment of funds from Macquarie’s balance sheet.

The bank has had a track record of success in the area of co-investment on deals with its clients before, including taking stakes in the past with Link Administration Holdings, StraitsNZ and Illion.

Before working at Credit Suisse, Mr Ristevski worked for 11 years at Citi where he led the General Industrials and Financial Sponsors team.

He joined Citi from Macquarie, where he worked in the bank’s general industrials and financial sponsors team.

That was after he worked for seven years at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King Wood & Mallesons) in its mergers and acquisitions team.

Mr Ristevski recently advised Kohlberg Kravis Roberts on its $1.2bn acquisition of ProbeCX and its proposal to acquire Ramsay, as well as TPG Capital on its sale of a strategic stake in Greencross to AusSuper and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan.

Macquarie said in an internal memo to staff that his appointment was an opportune time for the bank to establish a specialist private equity coverage team.

Dieu Ndenzako, who has recently taken on private equity client coverage responsibilities, would be the other senior member of this team working closely with Mr Ristevski.

Based in Sydney, Mr Ristevski will leave Credit Suisse in the third quarter of the year, and his departure comes as other Credit Suisse staff have recently left to join firms such as Barrenjoey and Jefferies.

UBS has hired Credit Suisse banker Ryan Gillis as its Head of Cash Facilitation for Australia and New Zealand.

Mr Gillis worked in the same role at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley and he starts in mid May.

Mr Ristevski’s announced departure from Credit Suisse comes after the Swiss government last month forced UBS to buy Credit Suisse in a $US3bn-plus rescue deal after a sudden crash in its share price and as much as $US10bn of daily customer outflows following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Earlier, Credit Suisse announced plans to demerge its investment banking arm as part of a global restructure where it cut thousands of jobs.

UBS has confirmed that it will retain the Credit Suisse private wealth business in Australia, but the investment banking arm, which was to be named Credit Suisse First Boston, looks likely to close, as UBS hire consultants to weigh options.

Credit Suisse is thought to have up to about 300 staff in Australia, about 65 of which work in investment banking, and many have been applying for jobs across the Australia market.

It became plagued over the past two years by the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, saddling the bank with $US5.5bn ($7.5bn) of losses, about $US2.3bn of problematic loans in its Greensill Capital Funds following the lender’s collapse, and it has exposure to Russian oligarchs.