HSBC's new German M&A boss needs to maintain the momentum
HSBC has a new boss of M&A in Germany. As was reported earlier this week, HSBC recruited Heiko Mittelhamm as its new head of M&A for Germany and Austria from Barclays, where he'd worked for the past five years.
Mittelhamm, who replaces previous co-heads Jan Masek and Ralf Neuhaus won't arrive until April. When he does, he'll need to get to work fast.
HSBC had a good year in M&A in Germany in 2019. According to Refinitiv, the deals intelligence provider, it ranked 17th for involvement in advice on any German M&A deals, up from 41st one year previously. Even so, its share of the German M&A advisory market was still just 3.2% - marginally higher than the 2.5% achieved by Barclays.
Mittelhamm arrives at HSBC at a potentially challenging time. The bank's interim chief executive, Noel Quinn, is preparing to announce a new strategy and restructuring plan when HSBC announces its full year results for 2019 in February 2020.
Quinn, who is expected to become permanent chief executive, has already said goodbye to the longstanding head of the investment bank, Samir Assaf, and is promising "material" cuts, particularly in the European business. German advisory bankers are likely to be safer than London credit traders, but Mittelhamm will still need to show that he can mantain the growth HSBC enjoyed in Germany last year.
HSBC's German business is based in Düsseldorf rather than Frankfurt. For the moment, most of the bank's job openings there seem to be for students looking for work placements.
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