Natexis Banques Populaires plans to open a London office for fixed income and derivatives sales and initially hire up to 10 salesman as part of the effort. Olivier Regis, co-head of global capital markets, said the bank will open the desk at the end of next month. "To be a global bank without anything for sales in the U.K. is crazy," he acknowledged, adding the firm hopes to change that. Natexis currently has commercial bank branches in London but not on the securities side.
The bank will hire the salesman to place credit, equity and interest-rate products to end users in the U.K., Ireland and Scandinavia. Trading will continue to be run from Paris. "The idea is to start with a low profile, to have 10 people to push products," he said. Regis added the bank hopes to find its niche by "pushing the relative value of French names to the rest of Europe and the U.K," by selling products such as credit derivatives on French corporates. He said Natexis last year opened sales offices in Madrid and Milan and it has proven successful.
