Deutsche Bank has pulled the trigger on big redundancies in its corporate and investment bank. Bloomberg reports that 250 people globally are being cut from the corporate and investment bank, and that the number of layoffs could rise to 500, presumably before bonuses are paid in March. Senior and mid-level individuals in the investment banking division (IBD) have already been ejected. So far, however, big name hires made by Alasdair Warren, the apparently unpopular head of the corporate and investment bank in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), appear to have been immune to the cull.
Warren arrived at Deutsche in November 2015 with a mandate to reinvigorate the German bank’s investment banking business. It hasn’t happened. As we reported earlier this month, Deutsche’s M&A business ranked ninth and seventh by volume and value in EMEA last year. Before Warren’s arrival, it was closer to sixth. Now, Deutsche is cutting costs, but insiders complain that some of Warren’s big hires, often from Goldman Sachs, are among the most expensive to maintain.
Warren’s biggest recruits include Robin Rousseau, who joined from Goldman Sachs to head EMEA M&A in June 2017 and Thomas Piquemal, who joined from EDF Energy as head of global M&A in May 2016. Both men still appear to be employed at the bank, as is Christos Tomarras, who joined from Goldman as head of financial sponsor M&A in March 2017. Only one Warren hire – Charlie Cetin, who joined from Goldman in June 2016 in an effort to “expand business with key clients” in EMEA appears to have exited, seemingly prior to this redundancy round.
Deutsche insiders point out that the people who are known to have gone so far pre-dated Warren’s arrival. They include Evans Haji-Touma who was hired from HSBC in September 2015 to cover sovereign wealth funds, and Andrew Tusa who was hired in June 2015 as co-head of corporate broking. Jonathan Gold, the co-head of FIG DCM who was put at risk at the start of this month, was hired in 2011.
Warren himself is thought to have arrived at DB on a substantial multi-year package. Now that this has expired, there have been possibly spurious reports that Warren is planning to leave. He recently appeared in a German newspaper professing his love for an art deco cinema he’s restored in Dorset using €1.5m of his bonuses.
Deutsche Bank didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on the exits.
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