RBC nabs trio of Credit Suisse bankers to expand tech franchise
Royal Bank of Canada’s RBC Capital Markets hired a trio of senior dealmakers from Credit Suisse Group AG, including Kirk Kaludis as global head of technology investment banking, in a bid to beef up the franchise.
The additions, all in San Francisco, also include Owen
Bittinger to serve as co-head of global software alongside RBC’s Ryan Lund,
who’s being promoted from overseeing U.S. software deals, according to a memo
seen by Bloomberg News. Federico Acabbi is joining as a director, also focused
on software.
The hires underscore “our global investment banking
leadership’s commitment to investing in talent in support of our continued
growth and significant level of deal activity across industry sectors and
products,” RBC told staff in the memo signed by U.S. investment banking
co-heads Jim Wolfe and Matthew Stopnik, U.K. head Josh Critchley and Canadian
head Trevor Gardner. “Our global technology investment banking group is one of
our largest sector groups and is at the center of the rapid convergence taking
place across our client base.”
They pointed to RBC’s recent work on megadeals including
Canadian National Railway Co.’s purchase of Kansas City Southern and the merger
of AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia division with Discovery Inc.
The three will join after a so-called gardening leave. An
RBC spokeswoman confirmed the memo’s contents.
Kaludis started at Credit Suisse in 2017 and most recently
was a managing director leading Americas technology investment banking there, the
memo shows. He previously was vice chairman and co-head of U.S. technology
investment banking at Barclays Plc, after starting his career at predecessor
firm Lehman Brothers. He’s worked on initial public offerings for companies
including ZoomInfo Technologies Inc. and Unity Software Inc., and on mergers
and acquisitions for Cisco Systems Inc., including its US$3.2 billion purchase
of WebEx, the memo shows. He also advised on AppDynamics Inc.’s US$3.7 billion
sale to Cisco.
Bittinger, also a managing director, was co-head of global
software investment banking. He previously worked at Barclays, Lehman and
Citigroup Inc. He has advised companies including Intapp Inc. and Datto Holding
Corp. on their IPOs and private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Francisco Partners
on transactions.
RBC is looking to accelerate the expansion of its software
banking business, which accounts for roughly half of the overall technology fee
pool, the RBC executives wrote in their memo. The firm’s former head of
technology investment banking, Michael Carter, one of the most prominent Black
investment bankers on Wall Street, left in March to join Truist Financial Corp.
as the head of its investment and corporate banking teams.
A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment. The departures
mark the latest in a slew of more than two dozen from the Swiss lender since it
was embroiled in loss-making scandals tied to Archegos Capital Management and
Greensill Capital. It has selectively offered to payments to some senior
executives in an effort to staunch the talent-bleed.
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