Call it a prescient career move, but before Nomura started cutting deep in its research functions, heads of departments in both London and New York left the bank. And both have now started up on their own.
Des Supple, the former global head of market research at Nomura who left in September 2015, has now started his own research boutique.
Event Horizon Research focuses on macro economic analysis on developed markets and Asia ex-Japan and Supple – its founder and CEO – has billed it as a consultancy rather than one of the growing numbers of research boutiques in the UK formed by senior analysts in the build up to MiFID II implementation.
Meanwhile, Jens Norvig, who was Nomura’s head of fixed income research in New York until earlier this year, has now launched his own firm called Exante Data. The firm is also a research consultancy, which uses big data and analytics to provide insight into macro trends.
He’s also hired David Fritz, who was an associate in G10 FX strategy at Nomura, as a senior strategist.
Des Supple was promoted to Nomura’s head of global market research in February 2013, following the bank’s decision to merge its fixed income and equity research division. Previously, he was global head of fixed income research at the bank.
Supple was responsible for developing a new strategy for Nomura’s research functions, which focused on globalising sector coverage and restructuring teams so that they were smaller but, in theory, stronger.
In April, Nomura had a sudden reversal on its equity research approach, deciding to shutter its European business entirely and make significant cuts in the U.S.
Nomura’s highly-rated analysts have been spilling on to the market since and competitors have been keen to take advantage. Jon Peace, its head of bank research, joined Credit Suisse as an MD focused on the banking sector in July. David Hayes, a managing director focused on consumer goods, joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while beverages analyst Ed Mundy and tobacco researcher Owen Bennett, were hired by Jefferies.
Supple was at Nomura for seven years, holding numerous senior roles including head of Asia rate strategy in Singapore and the head of fixed income research for EMEA. He joined from London Diversified Fund Management in Singapore, but also spent nearly 10 years at Barclays in various Asia-focused research roles.
Nordvig was previously a managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he was co-head of global currency strategy. After eight years at the bank he joined Bridgewater Associates as a senior investment associate in February 2009, but stayed for just 10 months before joining Nomura in October of that year.
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