JPMorgan has combined two of its equity derivatives groups and appointed a derivatives professional with specialized hybrid experience. The firm is thought to be the first to reorganize its equity derivatives structure to focus on hybrid instruments, traders and recruiters said.
The derivatives house has amalgamated its equity exotics and hybrids trading team and its equity investor solutions team, which structures products, to offer institutional clients more equity-based instruments that have exposure to other asset classes, such as fixed income, credit or commodities. The choice of Christopher French, head of interest rate and credit hybrids in London, before he took a six-month sabbatical, to head the combined group highlights the importance of other asset classes, according to Christian Dalban, head of equity derivatives trading in London.
The firm has begun adding bond indices, emerging market indices, gold and other commodities and inflation components to its equity products, said Dalban. Rivals said other firms have also been selling these types of products to entice investors back to equity products, but said JPMorgan is the only house know to have made a structural change.
The investor solutions group, which structures products specifically for institutional investors, is still being led by Martin Bertsch, but Olivier Robine, who was head of the exotic and hybrids trading team, recently joined Commerzbank Securities. Bertsch did not return calls.
