Bank of America and Citigroup have suspended all equity trading with Segantii Capital Management, according to the Financial Times citing people familiar with the matter. Concerns relate to equity block trades with Bank of America stopping trading with Segantii in all financial instruments and Citi suspending equity trading specifically. Segantii has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Other large banks including Goldman Sachs are still trading with Segantii.
Jefferies has named new leaders of its equity capital markets team in Europe, as Rob Leach steps down for a job on the buy side. Luca Erpici and Oliver Diehl have been promoted to joint heads of ECM for Europe, according to an internal memo seen by Financial News. Leach, who joined Jefferies from BlackRock in December 2015, is set to return to a role as a portfolio manager and will be building a capital markets team. The memo didn't specify which organisation he will join. Erpici has worked at the bank for over a decade and currently leads Jefferies’ equity syndicate desk in the region. Diehl joined from Berenberg nearly three years ago as part of a build-out of Jefferies' German business and is based in Frankfurt. Oliver Berwin will become head of equity syndicate in Europe.
Deutsche Bank has named Vadim Totskyy and Paul Bajer as co-heads of the bank’s new cross asset and platforms group. Bajer will join the bank in July from Credit Suisse, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. He was previously head of credit structuring at the Swiss bank. Totskyy is currently head of cross product structuring at Deutsche Bank. They will lead a new group that includes platforms and cross products, along with structured notes for institutional and wealth investor solutions. The team will “sit at the intersection” of Deutsche Bank’s fixed income and currencies product areas, according to the memo.
Millennium’s head of execution services Tom Ungi is set to retire later this year after 16 years with the hedge fund, according to sources familiar with the matter. Originally joining the hedge fund in 2006 as head of trading, he took on his most recent role in 2013. Ungi has had an extensive career in the financial services industry, previously serving as an international sales trader at ITG and as a stockbroker with EBI.
Deutsche Bank has re-aligned its Americas industrials team under six verticals reporting to John Anos, global co-head of industrials, according to an internal company memo. Tom Maloney will continue leading automotive and assume responsibility for aerospace and defense. Ian Woods will continue to lead building products and assume management responsibility of diversified industries. Niall Cullinane continues to head packaging and will assume management responsibility for industrial services. Rich Robinson will assume leadership of resources, including agribusiness, energy transition, residual energy and metals and mining. Craig Fuehrer continues leading transportation. Chris Towery remains head of chemicals.
In an exclusive interview with The Block, Alan Howard has for the first time laid out the full extent of his burgeoning crypto empire. It is an operation that encapsulates an array of crypto infrastructure and investment management plays, spanning public and private market investing; equity and tokens; centralized and decentralized ecosystems; and even, albeit in a personal capacity, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and generative art. “In short, this is an important macro trend and a new asset class that can, and likely will, impact the evolution of technology and the economy at large for many years to come,” he said. “As I balance my broad thesis with the reality that digital assets are a nascent asset class, I argue that it’s most prudent to invest across the entire crypto ecosystem in a highly diversified manner.” Set up earlier this year, BH Digital is the centerpiece in Howard’s crypto operation. The organization currently manages more than $1 billion in assets and employs over 60 people. Of those, nearly 20 are portfolio managers, each with a different specialty. BH Digital invests in the equity of both private and public crypto firms, as well as in the tokens they may issue. In the near future, BH Digital will roll out market-making capabilities to help support new tokens by providing early liquidity. Howard also revealed the existence of two new crypto-focused entities, an incubator named WebN Group and Coremont Digital, a middle- and back-office service provider. Then there is Elwood Technologies, a crypto-focused market access and trading platform for institutions.
Three years after being ousted as CEO of WeWork, Adam Neumann has jumped on the crypto bandwagon, raising $70 million in the first major funding round for his climate tech venture Flowcarbon. The project aims to make carbon trading more accessible by putting carbon credits on the blockchain. Neumann and his wife, Rebekah Neumann have been listed as co-founders of Flowcarbon, along with CEO Dana Gibber and COO Caroline Klatt — both co-founders of Headliner Labs, which builds AI-powered chatbots for major media brands. Ilan Stern, another co-founder of Flowcarbon, heads up Neumann’s own family office. The recent funding round includes $32 million in funding from Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz through their a16z crypto venture capital firm. Other investors include General Catalyst and Samsung Next. Another $38 million was raised in a token sale of Flowcarbon’s first carbon-backed token, the Goddess Nature Token (GNT).
