Less obvious new job opportunities can often emerge in firms that are just starting up.
In the City of London, 190 firms have been given the thumbs up by the Financial Conduct Authority during the months of October and November. They were all diligently tracked by M&A boutique IMAS. Most new companies were IFAs or one-man operations, but there were also some hedge funds, private equity firms and new boutique operations. Here’s the pick of the bunch.
1. Kartesia Advisor
A newly-created investment boutique focused on the leveraged buyout sector, which has drawn in a number of former investment bankers. Jaime Prieto and Matthieu Delamaire, both formerly of LBO France, are managing partners while Laurent Bouvier and ex-BNP Paribas banker Julien Rigon have also joined.
2. Macrohedge LLP
Macrohedge is a boutique hedge fund founded by Jawad Koradia, who was previously a global macro portfolio manager at Nomura, and Tudor Investment alumni. It was founded in August 2012, but received FCA authorisation in October.
3. Rhodium Capital
Bank of America’s former head of credit prop trading, Ifikhar Ali, launched Rhodium Capital Management in October, with the aim of capitalising on bond-market turbulence. Ali is CIO, but Jeffrey Tirman, who was president at Talisman Capital Management for 15 years, has signed up as CEO. Yash Ganeshan, a former senior trader at Jefferies, has also joined and it’s on the look out for a credit analyst, according to Reuters.
4. XHE Capital
Justin King, who was previously a portfolio manager at Bright Trading, is chief investment officer at XHE Capital, but the hedge fund has also enlisted Worrawat Sritrakul, formerly a lecturer in finance at Imperial College London, as its chief research officer and Hua Ye, who was previously a systematic trader at Millennium Partners.
5. Aquis Exchange
A new pan-European share trading platform whose launch in November was covered extensively, largely because of its attempt to break the duopoly in European cash equities trading between the local country stock exchange and BATS Chi-X. Founded by former Chi-X chief executive Alasdair Haynes, it currently has eight FSA approved staff including COO, Jonathan Clelland, and a host of non-executive directors. Expect more roles in the near future.