Money manager BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) has poached the talent and hired UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) banker Edward Cook for its capital markets team.
Cook oversaw UBS’ European equity syndication under the title, head of equity capital markets group syndicate, and will join his new team in London. He will report to Rob Leach, the former SAC Global Investors LLP partner and portfolio manager. Leach’s responsibilities include serving as EMEA capital markets unit’s head while Cook has the head title for syndication; this will focus on equities.
And just to throw in another industry insider, Michael Dennis, from the hedge fund Marshall Wace LLP, is the third member of capital markets team; his emphasis will be debt.
The team will hit the ground running next week, according to Bloomberg.
UBS Exodus
Cook’s exit from UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) is just one of many recent ones from other high-level players and investment bank workers in the last few weeks. There also appears to be a poaching battle between UBS and Bank of America Corp.
Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) has hired Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, chairman of UBS’s investment bank away from the company. He has a new role as president of Europe with the U.S. bank and he will revamp a team that recently lost its two senior executives from the region.
Meanwhile Andrea Orcel, the former chairman of global banking and markets at Bank of America, pulled the opposite; he left to accept a position as the co-head of UBS’ investment bank.
And just last week, three more senior UBS bankers departed. This included Roland Phillips, head of consumer banking; Ehren Stenzler, co-head of U.S. mergers and acquisitions and Aryeh Bourfkoff, head of investment banking in the Americas.
In the last year, the bank has also hired about 40 managing directors. Look for possible news of the company’s employee exodus in UBS’ upcoming earnings conference call on May 2.
The spokespeople from UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) and BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) did not comment on the news.
