Deutsche Bank loses 25 executives in bond group to Barclays Capital

New York, May 15: THREE months after failing to lure 40 top bond executives from Wall Street’s Credit Suisse First Boston, Barclays Capital has succeeded in hiring a group of senior bond professionals from Deutsche Bank AG instead. These are battles with an international flavour: The executive shifting mostly involves traders and investment bankers in New York, even though the three firms involved are owned by corporate parents in Switzerland, England and Germany, respectively. Barclays, the investment-banking arm of Barclays Bank PLC of the United Kingdom, hired about 15 executives of Deutsche, the big German bank, and several more are expected to join the firm in the coming weeks, according to two Barclays officials. A Deutsche spokesman wouldn’t comment on the departures other than to say he was aware of only six executives who were leaving so far.

The move is part of Barclays’s attempts to reach the top echelon in the bond business, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Among the new hires is Grant Kvalheim, Deutsche’s head of global-debt origination. Mr Kvalheim will be head of global credit products at Barclays. Other senior hires include John Winter, a managing director at Deutsche who will be head of European debt capital markets at Barclays, and Peter Goettler, who will be head of US debt capital markets at Barclays. The hirings by Barclays are part of a strategy by Barclays CEO Robert Diamond to make the firm a powerhouse in debt underwriting and trading.

-- The Wall Street Journal