Private equity firms are raiding the junior ranks of J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs

Private equity firms have their pick of investment banks’ junior staff in the City, and only want the very best. Right now, this means J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, and in the past few weeks there’s been an exodus to the buy-side.

Analysts and associates with J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs’ M&A, leveraged finance and other front office functions have joined a range of private equity funds. Investment banks are increasingly offering their juniors 20% pay rises to stay, in order to avoid increasingly large gaps in the pool, but many top analysts are leaving anyway.

The most notable trend among the recent departures is that they work for Goldman or J.P. Morgan and also focus on either technology, media and telecoms (TMT) or industrials investment banking.

At J.P. Morgan, Toedora Teia Negoita, an analyst in its TMT investment banking team, has just joined Hearst Ventures as an investment associate; analyst Tina Belova has left to join energy investment firm Bluefield Partners; Maria Chekulaeva has left her role as an analyst in TMT and industrials investment banking to join TPG Global; M&A analyst Baptise Villain has been hired into BlueBay Asset Management’s private debt team; and Jacob Sheehan has departed its syndicated loans team to joined Ares Management in a direct lending role.

“I don’t think that Goldman and JPM analysts are more interested in moving to funds than those at other banks, they just have a better chance because they have the brand name behind them. Every bank is full of analysts desperate to move to the buy-side,” says one private equity headhunter.

“There is also the belief on the buy-side that the big US banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPM) produce better analysts. Goldman Sachs is universally considered the best,” he says.

Goldman Sachs, which has just had its dominance questioned after a quarter that lags its U.S. rivals, has also been losing analysts and associates to offers on the buy-side.

Nicola Mueller, an analyst in high yield credit, has just joined Oaktree Capital Management as an associate; Iltay Sensagir, an analyst in M&A, has just joined middle market fund Kartesia; Olivier Roy, who worked in TMT and industrials IBD is another junior to go to TPG Global as an associate; and Alexis Collin, another TMT/industrials analyst, has been hired by Blackstone’s GSO Capital Partners.

Within Goldman’s European Special Situations Group, one of the bank’s most profitable divisions which invests its own money in loans to distressed companies, we understand that analyst Benjamin Boss has just joined Intermediate Capital Group and Francesco Canessa has been hired by Kildare Capital.

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Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com