Investment banks appear to be moving to shore up support from their senior staff ahead of what is expected to be an assault on their ranks by competitors next year.
On Tuesday Goldman Sachs announced new titles for some its most highly regarded bankers in the Australian market, weeks before the US-based bank is due to offer up a select group of its most prized staff highly coveted partnership titles.
Local corporate advisory head Christian Johnston will now be known as the Australian and New Zealand chairman, paving the way for co-chief operating officers Zac Fletcher and Nick Sims to become head of corporate advisory and Marissa Freund head of mergers and acquisitions.
Simon Rothery will remain as Goldman Sachs chief executive for Australia and New Zealand.
It also follows speculation in the market that top Goldman Sachs bankers have been approached by rivals to join their ranks ahead of the launch of two new investment banking competitors in the market — the Guy Fowler-backed Barrenjoey Capital Partners and New Zealand-based Jarden.
This includes Mr Fletcher, who was named as a potential target for Morgan Stanley, although sources close to Morgan Stanley and Mr Fletcher at the time denied he was moving to the US-based banking heavyweight.
Jarden has already tapped several high-profile bankers to join its operations as part of its expansion into the Australian banking market, as has Barrenjoey.
However, the real hiring spree by Barrenjoey is expected to be into full swing by next year after investment bankers have received their bonus payments. Senior bankers at UBS are expected to be targets for the group, which is likely to count ex UBS Australia boss Matthew Grounds among its senior ranks and David Gonski as its independent chairman.
Jarden and Morgan Stanley have raided the ranks of UBS, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
UBS head of real estate Tim Church is joining Morgan Stanley as chairman, along with UBS director Sam Bates, while Jarden has hired Goldman Sachs’s former head of equity capital markets Sarah Rennie and other UBS heavyweights including Robbie Vanderzeil, John Spencer, Aidan Allen and Mitch Schauer.
Last month Goldman Sachs announced New York-based Ian Taylor as its new equity capital markets head for Australia.
The changes come after what has been relatively buoyant activity for global investment banking, particularly for those with large balance sheets based in the US.
This is after working on a long line of highly lucrative equity raisings for Australian corporates and raisings through the bond market.
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