Jefferies and Macquarie hired equity researchers from Berenberg

Much as the London recruitment market may be moribund in the face of Brexit and other headwinds, hiring is happening. Even in equity research.

In the past month, both Jefferies and Macquarie are said to have picked up equity research professionals from German bank Berenberg. Both are senior hires.

Simon Toennessen, Berenberg's global head of capital goods research, is understood to be on his way to Jefferies, seemingly for a similar role. Toennessen didn't respond to a request to clarify his situation, but he was no longer on Berenberg's internal directory when we called.

Roberta Ciaccia, a former Berenberg equity analyst in the leisure and gaming sector, has also moved on.  Ciaccia joined Macquarie in a similar role last month, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Toennessen has 14 years' experience in equity research and previously worked for Credit Suisse. Ciaccia spent nearly eight years at Exane BNP Paribas.

Equity research jobs in London have suffered as a result of MiFID II. A study in the summer found that 334 firms in Europe have lost sell-side research coverage completely following the implementation of the regulations, which require research to be charged for independently of other brokerage costs.

Last November Berenberg announced redundancies in its equities team in London. The German bank had been in the process of growing its team but suddenly declared that it was, "re-setting equities headcount back to the beginning of 2017." 

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