Ireland’s biggest stockbroker, Davy, has named five new senior hires for its London operation and plans to bolster its UK investment bank in a boost to the City just months after Brexit.
Davy launched a new technology research division, with David Reynolds, the former head of media and internet research at Jefferies, to lead a new team of analysts as part of a broader expansion.
The new unit will focus on e-commerce, online marketplace and software businesses, with Alex Short and James Musker also joining the team.
The stockbroker has also hired Will Smith from RBC Capital Markets as a senior banker within its UK corporate broking team as part of its ambitions to expand in equity capital markets. The four hires follow Dave Greenall, who joined earlier this year to head up a new UK business services research team.
READ City fund managers flock to Dublin as pandemic-weary Irish ‘keen to move back’
Davy launched its new London office in November, and Marco Schwartz, head of capital markets, UK at the firm said that it plans to expand from its current headcount of six people to around 12 before the end of this year. “This number could double again by the end of next year,” he said.
“Davy has done lot of business in the UK for some time and some Dublin-based staff have regularly flown in,” he said. “However, we are the first permanent UK employees and the brief is to use that existing platform to broaden the reach of Davy with UK Plc.”
The stockbroker will expand in research, equity capital markets and debt advisory in the coming months, he added.
Davy is headquartered in Dublin, and has around 800 staff and €14bn in assets under management. It also has offices in the UK, Luxembourg and Northern Ireland.
Dublin has emerged as the leading financial centre for securing financial institutions looking to set up their post-Brexit hubs. Since the 2016 referendum, 36 financial services organisations have either opened new offices or shifted functions from the UK to the Irish capital, according to EY.
In its home country, Ireland’s biggest stockbroker is emerging from a crisis after it was fined €4.1m by Ireland’s central bank in March after the regulator found that 16 Davy employees set up a consortium to buy bonds of Anglo Irish Bank from a client, without disclosing to the client that they were a buyer. The incident dates back to 2014.
Shortly after the fine, Davy put itself up for sale, a process that is expected to take a number of months.
To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Paul Clarke