Barclays M&A Unit Hires HSBC Banker -- WSJ

By Ben Dummett 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 18, 2017).

LONDON -- Barclays PLC poached a senior investment banker from HSBC Holdings PLC to co-head its U.K. mergers-and-acquisitions operations.

The British-based bank hired Omar Faruqui to oversee U.K. M&A along with current co-head Derek Shakespeare, according to a memo, as the bank aims to deepen its relationships with U.K. clients.

Based in London, Mr. Faruqui, 42 years old, will assume his new role in January. He brings more than 20 years of investment-banking experience across U.K. corporate-finance and private-equity firms.

The appointment comes as Barclays is involved in some of the most high-profile U.K. cross-border deals, including Vantiv Inc.'s $10 billion-plus cash-and-stock deal to acquire U.K. payments processor Worldpay Group PLC, which was announced in August.

At the same time, the deal-making climate in the U.K. is clouded by the uncertain political and economic fallout from Britain's continuing efforts to split from the European Union. Foreign acquisitions of U.K. companies are down about 15% measured by total value and down about 5% by volume so far this year from the year-earlier period, according to data provider Dealogic.

That potentially highlights concerns by some foreign companies over the economic outlook for the U.K. Similarly, the uncertain political climate may give U.K.-focused companies reason to expand abroad as a way to reduce their reliance on the domestic economy. Supporting that view, outbound deal making measured by value and volume is up significantly so far in 2017, according to Dealogic.

Mr. Faruqui, who left HSBC last week to join Barclays, was head of M&A origination at HSBC, and before that he was European co-head of financial sponsors for the bank. Over the years, the investment banker has worked on several acquisitions and sales for blue-chip U.K. companies, including BAE Systems PLC and Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 18, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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