Barclays Capital has turned its attention to U.S. investment grade research, the latest stage in a widespread effort to build up its U.S. fixed income business. The firm is looking for a head of investment grade research and senior analysts in a number of sectors, particularly industrials, utilities and financials, according to John Stathis, managing director and head of global market sales and research.
Stathis believes the focus on investment grade research is the next logical step, now that Barclays has built up sales and trading and debt origination. Barclays landed a trio of senior investment banking pros from Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown in May.
Barclays currently ranks 13th in Bloomberg's league tables for investment grade. Stathis says that though the firm has had discussions about where it would like to be by what time frame, the primary aim is to build a strong platform, and he doesn't want to give excessive attention to rankings.
Stathis says the firm started seriously shopping for research talent about six weeks ago. He plans to announce three to five new research hires, including a head, by the end of the year, though he hopes some of those will come within a month's time. He says the firm is looking at Institutional Investor-ranked analysts, though "there are a lot of good ones out there that aren't ranked."