Clay Desjardine is leaving his position as head of secondary sales and trading at Deutsche Bank later this year, as first reported on Loan Market Week's Web site last week. Desjardine declined to comment and referred questions to a Deutsche Bank spokesman, who confirmed Desjardine is leaving. He said the bank is transferring Steve Snizek, director and head of par loan trading for Deutsche Bank in London, to replace Desjardine.
"We are bringing over a strong trader with a lot of experience and are looking to add another senior trader," said the spokesman, who added, "We are absolutely looking to grow our secondary trading efforts." Snizek, who will be returning to the New York desk he left in 2002, confirmed that he will be replacing Desjardine. Deutsche Bank is said to be working on a replacement for the London spot. Market participants said Desjardine is leaving the market to go to Vancouver, but further details of his plans could not be determined.
Snizek is set to take over a desk that is considered very strong in distressed, but has become less influential in par over the past few years. In the 2004 LMW best trading desk awards, Deutsche Bank slipped to sixth in par. It was second in par as recently as 2002. One portfolio manager who frequently trades with Deutsche Bank said the desk really only concentrates on its own names.
Replacing Desjardine internally will not come as a surprise to some in the market, who have noted that demand for senior traders is high while supply is limited. This is evidenced by Goldman Sachs's attempt to attract Peter Lapina to its par loan trading operations (LMW, 4/19). "They've seen what happened with Goldman. Goldman tried to get Lapina and couldn't. Getting a senior [trader] is different," a source familiar with the situation said.
According to Desjardine's NASD filing, he worked for Deutsche Bank in Australia from 1994-95, then moved to Deutsche Bank in London until 1999, before coming to the States. Snizek went to London in August 2000 having worked on Deutsche Bank's U.S. par loan trading desk. In London Snizek is responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and his focus is on the trading of leveraged, investment-grade, telecom and project finance loans.