14 International Financing Review March 21 2020Who’s moving where...
RAYMOND JAMES CHIEF FIXED INCOME STRATEGIST KEVIN GIDDIS, PDEUTSCHE BANK
lured Citigroup
technology M&A
banker Jusung Kwok
back to the fold,
naming him head of
West Coast technology
M&A in its technology,
media and telecoms
investment banking
group. Kwok had been
with Citi for two years,
based in San Francisco.He is returning to
Deutsche, where he
worked from 2004 to
2012 in its technology
M&A group. The move
shows Deutsche is
trying to beef up its
M&A group after a
period of uncertainty
about its commitment
to US investment
banking. Kwok will join
Deutsche in May.Investment bank
GREENHILL hired
Jonathan Brownstein
as a managing
director in its
restructuring group.
He joined from middle
market advisory firm
Armory Group. He was
previously in the
restructuring group at
Rothschild, making
him the latest in a lineof bankers with ties to
Rothschild to join
Greenhill as it builds
out its restructuring
group. The bank hired
Neil Augustine as co-
head of the group in- Before joining
Rothschild in 2013,
Brownstein worked at
Oppenheimer, Piper
Jaffray and CIBC.
The syndicate banker cannot come to the
phone right now
For many Wall Street professionals
completing a multi-billion dollar bond deal
in this new era of pandemic, precautions
could boil down to call forwarding.
9ES ûFORûTHEûCAPITALûOFûGLOBALûlNANCEûANDû
masters of the universe, it is as simple as
that.
/NEûCHALLENGEûFORû7ALLû3TREETûlRMSûISûAû
lack of call- forwarding capabilities because
clients are no longer able to call into the
general desk line and get someone on the
phone immediately. It is especially a
problem in the notoriously low-tech bond
trading world, which relies heavily on calls
to conduct business.
“Internally, we all know we’re working
from home, but I have an inbox full of
people asking, ‘What’s your number I’m
trying to reach you,’” one banker said.
h!ûLOTûOFûlRMSûDONTûHAVEûTHEûABILITYûTOûCALLû
forward and it’s not causing a problem, but
it’s a bit of a hiccup and people have to do
SOMEûEXTRAûWORKûTOûlNDûUSv
And miscommunication or no
communication has also led to some deals
not getting done.THE WORD IS ADAPTION
There have been more than 245,
coronavirus cases worldwide and more than
10,000 deaths.
That has prompted banks to ask
thousands of staff to work from home and to
run dual trading sites in New York, London
and other major hubs for their trading
operations, because much of the sales and
trading activity cannot be done remotely.
Often banks are splitting teams up to have
GROUPSûWORKûREMOTELYûANDûINûTHEûOFlCEûONûAûrotating basis. Those plans look like being
THEûNORMûFORûTHEûlNANCIALûINDUSTRYûFORûTHEû
foreseeable future.
In New York State, where there were
ûCONlRMEDûCASESûANDûûDEATHS ûSTATEû
and local governments and businesses and
citizens are grappling with a variety of ways
to cope.New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said
he would not approve a shelter-in-place
order, but did require all non-essential
businesses to operate with at least 50% of
employees working remotely. It falls on
bank management to decide if they want to
INCREASEûTHATûlGUREûTOû
That leaves syndicate desks adjusting
WORKûmOWûANDûMODIFYINGûTHEIRûSTRATEGIESûTOû
attract investor attention.
Many employees on a rotating schedule
are upset that they are still required to go
INTOû.EWû9ORKûOFlCESûORûEVENûDISASTERûRELIEFû
centres in New Jersey and Westchester
County, New York, according to reports.
But bond syndicate teams working
exclusively from home said they were
mostly upbeat about the experience,
recognising the moral responsibility to stay
out of public transit and other areas where
the virus could spread.“We have access to all of our systems and
everything is running seamlessly from home,”
one New York-based syndicate banker for a
#ANADIANûlNANCIALûINSTITUTIONûSAIDIS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?
One of the consequences of working from
home is that smaller high-grade names
trying to access the primary market are
GETTINGûLOSTûINûTHEûSHUFmE ûHOWEVER
On Tuesday, 10 issuers announced new
bonds in the morning, but energy company
ENTERGY dropped its deal having never
budged from initial price thoughts.
Similarly, DOMINION ENERGY GAS HOLDINGS and
UNION ELECTRIC were unable to move from
initial price thoughts, in part because of
communications issues, bankers said.
One syndicate banker close to the Entergy
trade said it was harder to get in contact
with investors and get them up to speed on
a smaller energy credit, especially when
household names such as VERIZON, EXXONMOBIL
and PROGRESSIVE were soaking up all the
attention.
“One thing you may start seeing is
syndicates being more cognizant of the
number of deals in the market at a given
time,” the lead syndicate banker noted.
“That being said, there aren’t that many
viable days and you don’t know when the
next viable day will be.”
There are plenty of issuers still in the
pipeline considering raising capital, the
banker added, but investors are distracted
and smaller names may not be able to grab
their attention for some time.
Investors echoed that sentiment, citing
distracting work from home environments“My only thought here is that if this was a 2008-style
credit crisis then it would probably work, but it’s not”
There are plenty of issuers still
in the pipeline considering
raising capital, but investors are
distracted and smaller names
may not be able to grab their
attention for some time.5 IFR PM 2325 p 13 - 22 .indd 14 20 / 03 / 2020 20 : 28 : 37