Barclays PLC BCS-N has landed a new head of its domestic investment banking team from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce CM-T, continuing to rebuild its ranks by adding expertise in telecom and technology.
The British bank hired Toronto-based Ryan Voegeli on Thursday as the leader of its investment banking group, replacing Calgary-based Tim Kitchen, who retired last year.
Mr. Voegeli spent the past 13 years at CIBC’s capital markets division, most recently as head of the global diversified industries team. Prior to joining CIBC, Mr. Voegeli led the Canadian telecom, media and technology unit at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Barclays is restructuring after more than a dozen of its senior bankers and analysts jumped to the Canadian arm of Wall Street investment dealer Jefferies Financial Group Inc. JEF-N in a two-month period that began last August. Globally, Barclays lost a number of professionals to rival dealers over the past year, as the bank reoriented around new leaders.
In October, Barclays responded by hiring former CIBC global co-head of wholesale banking Geoffrey Belsher as its chair and country chief executive officer for Canada. The bank is now adding depth in coverage of telecom and technology, sectors being shaped by mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Voegeli’s team at CIBC advised the special committee at Shaw Communications Inc. on the $20-billion takeover by Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T, and on Shaw’s 2016 acquisition of cellphone provider Wind Mobile. Barclays co-advised Rogers on the Shaw acquisition. Barclays has also raised money and done takeover work for tech companies such as Lightspeed Commerce Inc. and Nuvei Corp.
“Ryan’s extensive industry relationships, combined with his proven leadership capabilities, will be of enormous value to our clients and colleagues,” Mr. Belsher said in a press release Thursday. “The whole team looks forward to even better serving our clients, and making increased inroads into key business areas such as cross-border M&A, equity financing, and high-yield financing.”
A lawyer by training, Mr. Voegeli spent four years at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP before joining Merrill Lynch. He graduated from the University of Victoria’s law school, and earned a business degree from the University of British Columbia.
New York-based Jefferies aggressively expanded its Canadian platform last fall by hiring a total of 40 professionals, with the bulk of the team coming from Barclays. In Canada, Jefferies is led by Bruce Rothney, who ran Barclays for 13 years, along with former leaders of Barclay’s M&A, diversified industry, telecom, financial services and equity capital markets teams. Jefferies also added ex-Barclays analysts who cover financial services, mining and energy, plus an equity sales and trading desk.
Barclays has been operating in Canada for more than a century – Prime Minister Robert Borden and Finance Minister Michael Wilson both led the firm after leaving office – and ranked among the country’s top tier of M&A advisers last year.
Andrew Willis