Barclays share price: Bank beefs up M&A team

Barclays (LON:BARC) has hired a former Deutsche Bank dealmaker as executive chairman of mergers and acquisitions in New York, Reuters has reported. The move follows several key hires at the FTSE 100 group in recent months.

Barclays’ share price has surged in London this morning, having gained 1.56 percent to 136.85p as of 09:46 BST. The group’s shares are outperforming the broader London market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index having slipped marginally into the red and currently standing 0.22 percent lower at 6,519.27 points. The group’s shares have lost more than 46 percent of their value over the past year, and are down by more than 37 percent in the year-to-date.

Reuters reported yesterday that Barclays had disclosed in an internal memo that it had hired Tony Whittemore, a former senior banker at Deutsche Bank as executive chairman of its M&A division in New York. Whittemore was most recently co-head of Americas M&A at Deutsche Bank, having previously also worked at Citigroup where he advised telecommunications companies.
“The technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector is seeing marked evolution and Tony’s experience will add great value to our clients who rely on us for strategic advice and intellectual capital,” Gary Posternack, Barclays’ Global Head of M&A said in the memo, as quoted by the newswire.
The appointment comes after Carlo Calabria recently joined the FTSE 100 group as chairman of M&A in Europe, the Middle East and Africa while two managing directors in healthcare, Jason Haas and Evan Matlin, and consumer retail investment banker Eric Biddle were also hired.
In analyst ratings, Morgan Stanley, which has a ‘neutral’ stance on Barclays, set a price target of 155p on the lender this week. Macquarie, which sees the FTSE 100 group as a ‘buy’, meanwhile set a valuation of 175p on the shares.
As of 10:35 BST, Friday, 08 July, Barclays share price is 137.70p.