We spoke too soon

"It is busier than ever," said one person, leaking an internal memo about a new hire to the press this week.

For whatever reason, a lot of the latest announcements around who will be working where have had an infrastructure or project finance flavour, with Investec, and Santander adding senior bankers in London and Credit Suisse staffing back up in power and renewable energy investment banking in New York.

It is a good time for banks to make sure that their infrastructure practices are up to scratch, given the prominent 'Build Back Better' agendas on both sides of the Atlantic, though it remains to be seen whether the rhetoric will be backed up by action.

In any case, Santander has put in place a new head of debt advisory within its UK-based structured finance team. William Evans joins the bank from boutique investment bank Elgar Middleton, where he was managing partner.

Meanwhile, Investec appears to be gearing up for a wave of power and renewable energy financing in Europe as it adds to its team in London. Anupam Sharma has joined the firm from BNP Paribas, where he was in charge of energy, resources and infrastructure finance syndication in EMEA.

The US is at least putting some money where its mouth is, having signed a $1.2tr infrastructure bill into law in November, though president Joe Biden's follow-up Build Back Better bill is still languishing in negotiations between Democratic senators. The bill includes several provisions that would extend and enhance subsidies for renewable energy in the form of tax credits.

But even with the uncertainty hanging over the tax credits, the renewable energy industry is motoring along nicely in the US, with plenty of M&A taking place as infrastructure fund managers and international energy companies gobble up assets.

So it makes sense for Credit Suisse to be looking for replacements for the senior energy and infrastructure investment bankers that left its New York office earlier this year. In Mike Dunne, a stalwart of Bank of America and, before the financial crisis, Merrill Lynch, the firm has found a safe pair of hands to take over as head of power and renewable energy from Jonathon Kaufman, who departed for Evercore.

UK investment banking has been a particularly fierce recruiting ground this year, with senior corporate broking bankers switching shops and plenty of movement in sector coverage.

Last week, it was revealed that Barclays had hired Aamir Khan as a managing director from HSBC. This week, gamekeeper turned poacher as HSBC told staff that Chris Fincken would be joining the team as an MD from Nomura.

US M&A boutique Moelis was also actively hiring in London, picking up James Nichols from DC Advisory, the M&A advisory subsidiary of Daiwa Securities. He will not be focused solely on the UK, however, but will cover business services companies across Europe.

Do you have a new job or a new hire to report? Send it to richard.metcalf@globalcapital.com or call +44 (0)20 7779 7315.