This Week

• Kinder Morgan sets $2.3bn IPO date

  The US will see its next large private equity backed initial public offering hit the markets next week, with Kinder Morgan planning to trade February 11.

• Citi hires institutional clients group MD

  Citigroup has hired Michael Eckhart as a managing director in the institutional clients group. Eckhart joins after a decade at the American Council on Renewable Energy, as the founding president and a member of the board of directors.

• Credit Suisse hires Internet IB head

  Credit Suisse has hired Imran Khan to head its Internet investment banking, Thomson Reuters reported. Khan previously worked at JP Morgan where he was head of global Internet research. Khan will start his new role in May and will be based in San Francisco.

• UBS delays bonus payments

  UBS will delay payment of bonuses after executives expressed concerns that the pending payouts would be inadequate to retain the top talent it has been hiring to rebuild its investment bank, according to a person familiar with the matter.

• Evercore looks to hire in Europe

  Evercore Partners, the US advisory boutique and asset manager, said it will continue to grow globally and wants to expand in Europe after increasing staff numbers by a third last year.

• Morgan Stanley add to capital markets in Australia

  Morgan Stanley's Australian unit has hired Patrick Mullins, former global co-head of capital markets origination at National Australia Bank, as a managing director in the bank’s fixed income capital markets division, Bloomberg reported. He will begin his new role later this month, the report said.

• Deutsche Bank confirms Q4 pressured by costs

  Germany's Deutsche Bank on Thursday reported fourth-quarter net profit of €601m, confirming preliminary figures given earlier this week when the bank said earnings would be below market expectations because of integration costs.

• Panel floats idea of US 'century' bonds

  The US government may consider issuing bonds with a maturity of more than 30 years, but isn't ready for 100-year bonds as some on Wall Street would like.

• How to catch an insider dealer

  Former banker Christian Littlewood this morning received the longest custodial sentence yet doled out for insider dealing in the UK as he, together with his wife and a third defendant, were sentenced. Financial News lifts the lid on how financial regulators set about unearthing and understanding the trio's wrongdoing and building their case against them.

• Lazard reins in pay despite revenue boost

  Lazard has chosen not to ramp up compensation despite a big jump in revenues last year in a move that will go some way to appease critics who argued the independent advisory firm was giving away too much of its profits to employees.

• Wall Street pay reaches record $135bn

  In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135bn, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The total is up 5.7% from $128bn in combined compensation and benefits by the same companies in 2009.

• Freescale selects banks for IPO

  Texas-based chip manufacturer Freescale Semiconductor has selected Citigroup and Deutsche Bank as underwriters on its forthcoming initial public offering, Thomson Reuters reported. The IPO is set to launch in the first half of this year.

• Standard Life warns on bank bonds

  Standard Life Investments has confirmed the fears of investment banks that tougher financial regulation could make it far more unattractive for fund managers to buy into future bank fundraisings.

• Jefferies hires European insurance services head

  Jefferies has hired Dirk Schlochtermeyer as head of European insurance services within its rates group. Schlochtermeyer previously worked for German Insurance Association where he was head of its capital markets unit.

• Lazard names strategic adviser

  Lazard has named Gerald Rosenfeld as a strategic adviser and as vice chairman of US investment banking in New York. Rosenfeld was latterly the deputy chairman of Rothschild North America.

• Macquarie hires Europe industrials head

  Macquarie Capital has hired Michael Tarrant as senior managing director and head of industrials Europe. Tarrant joins from Rothschild where he was a partner and global head of business services, logistics and marine transport. He has previously worked at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse.

• Nomura Q3 profit jumps 31%

  Nomura said on Wednesday its group net profit grew 31% in the October-December period from a year earlier, in part due to an increase in revenue helped by underwriting big initial public offering and equity finance deals.

• Nielsen is biggest private equity-backed IPO in US

  Nielsen Holdings initial public offering ranks as the largest private equity-backed deal ever in the US, now that the company's over-allotment option to sell additional shares has been exercised, according to data tracker Dealogic.

• Foreign banks have evacuated some staff from Egypt

  Foreign banks have begun evacuating some foreign staff from Egypt and the nation's central bank ordered banks closed yesterday as the political turmoil continues.

• Perella Weinberg moves into global M&A; top 10

  Perella Weinberg Partners has moved into the top 10 for mergers and acquisitions advisory work after securing a brace of high-profile mandates in what has been the busiest January for global M&A; deals for three years.

• Cohrs still waiting for crisis lessons to be learnt

  The former co-head of corporate and investment banking at Deutsche Bank has called for a debate about the structure of the industry, which he said had still not learnt the lessons of the financial crisis.

• RenCap forms new investment unit

  Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment bank, has formed a new unit, Renaissance Investments, to target shorter-term opportunistic investments in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The group will originate, manage and divest of investments in unique situations, ranging from $30m to $100m, with a holding period of between six and 12 months. Egor Sirota, who joins Renaissance from Alfa-Eco/A1 Investments, will run the new unit. He also previously held roles at Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers in New York, and Alfa Group Consortium in Moscow.

• Sberbank may hire former UniCredit CEO

  Russian lender Sberbank may hire Alessandro Profumo, former chief executive of Italian investment bank UniCredit, newspaper Vedomosti reported. Profumo may become an adviser to Sberbank chief executive Officer German Gref, the report said. Profumo left his role at UniCredit in September last year.

• Goldman Sachs names Asia co-presidents

  Goldman Sachs has named Yusuf Alireza and David Ryan as co-presidents for Asia, excluding Japan, according to a memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal. Yusuf has been head of the securities division in Asia, including Japan, since moving to Hong Kong in 2008, according to the memo. Ryan is co-head of the investment banking division in Asia-ex Japan and chairman of South East Asia.

• Hawkpoint taps UBS for industrials head

  Advisory firm Hawkpoint has hired Colin Christie as a managing director and head of industrials. Christie joins from Swiss bank UBS where he worked at a senior level in both New York and London. At UBS, he has advised General Electric, GE Capital, Siemens, Xerox, Anglo American, Reed Elsevier and a number of other clients in significant merger and acquisition assignments and capital market activities.

• Bank of America awards Moynihan $9m stock bonus

  Bank of America chief Executive Brian Moynihan received $9.05m (€6.6m) in a deferred stock bonus, his first performance award for running the bank.

• Deutsche Bank offers an early warning on its earnings

  Deutsche Bank reported a steep drop in fourth-quarter earnings as acquisitions and the restructuring of its investment banking unit weighed on its bottom line.

• Larger firms to pay for FSA’s £50m budget hike

  Investment banks are facing a significant increase in the fees they pay to the Financial Services Authority, the regulator revealed in its annual funding report today.

• Banks exploit bonus get-out clause

  Fewer bankers and traders at the biggest investment banks in the UK will be affected by new bonus regulations for 2010 than were captured by less stringent rules the year before, after the Financial Services Authority changed its guidance as to which staff should be included by the new guidelines.

• Bonus binge fails to materialise

  If you believe everything you read in some newspapers, you might expect bankers and traders to splashing their bonuses on expensive champagne, fine wine and fast cars. But anyone hoping to benefit from a bonus-related spending binge is set to be disappointed.

• ‘Bailout bond’ is step towards single issuer

  The runaway success of the first bond issued by the European Union’s €440bn bailout fund last week has paved the way for the creation of a single European government bond issuer, which would reduce the cost of borrowing for Europe’s weakest states, according to bankers and analysts.

• Equities wrestles control from FICC

  Ever since Michael Lewis described equities as “lower than whale shit on the ocean floor” in Liar’s Poker in the late 1980s, the equities business has played second fiddle to fixed income. But banks that have kept the faith and maintained their equities business in the face of weak revenues since the financial crisis are set for high rewards this year and victory for the first time in a decade in the grapple for power with their muscular counterparts in fixed income.

• Ex-RBS deputy takes advisory role at boutique

  One of the most senior investment bankers at Royal Bank of Scotland in the years running up to the financial crisis has resurfaced at an advisory boutique.

• Ex-Lehman COO resurfaces

  The former chief operating officer at Lehman Brothers in Europe who joined Macquarie last March as chief executive of its European business – before leaving just weeks later – has re-emerged at a proprietary trading firm.

• Business models under threat

  Regulation and politics are driving wholesale changes to bank business models.

• RBC Capital Markets hires two equity analysts

  RBC Capital Markets has hired two new equity analysts to its European equities platform. Jean-Francois Tremblay has joined as a director and equity research analyst covering the non-life insurance sector. He previously worked at RBS where he was a senior analyst covering European insurance stock. Peter Hutton joins as a director and equity research analyst, covering the integrated oil and gas sector. Hutton formerly worked at NCB Stockbrokers where he was director of research, head of oil and gas.

• Credit Suisse hires oil & gas analyst

  Credit Suisse has hired Nik Burns as an analyst covering Australian oil and gas companies, Bloomberg reported. Burns joins from RBS Morgans where he worked in a similar role.

• UBP hires Mena investment team

  Union Bancaire Privée has hired a Middle East and North Africa equities investment team to help clients with region's stock markets. Habib Oueijan will lead a five-member team that includes senior portfolio manager Mahmoud El Safty and three experienced research analysts. All have been hired from a Dubai-based asset management firm.

• Six Telekurs USA makes three hires

  Six Telekurs USA, the subsidiary of Swiss-based financial information provider Six Group, has made three new hires. Anthony Fiori, formerly responsible for global market data services at Franklin Templeton Investments, joins as manager of data acquisition; Renee Potter, previously at S&P;, joins as vice president of business strategy and corporate development; Charles Roy joins as vice president, head of finance.

• Intech Investment hires vice president

  Intech Investment Management, a subsidiary of Janus Capital, has hired Danny Meidan as vice president, senior investment officer, effective this month. Meidan will be based in Florida and supervise the firm's research team. He joins from Mental Capital in San Francisco where he was a senior quantitative researcher.

• Mizuho makes string of appointments

  Mizuho International, the investment banking arm of Mizuho Financial Group, has made a number of appointments to its fixed income and equities business, Thomson Reuters reported. Jermaine Jarrett has been named head of high yield syndicate and capital markets; Peter Din is now a director of fixed income trading; Richard Gathercole is director of high yield sales; Diego Degli Esposti and Scott Chapman have been appointed directors of fixed income trading; Frank Mertens is head of debt capital markets for Germany, Switzerland and Austria; Riccardo Barbieri Hermitte is chief European economist; Anke Richter as credit strategist; Christ Macmilland as director of fixed income sales; Isabel Vidaurrazaga as a vice president of fixed income sales; and Rowan Chaplin and Phillip Kennedy as directors of equity sales.

Last Week

• Citigroup seeks buyer for EMI

  Citigroup, which is expected to seize control of EMI Group from beleaguered financier Guy Hands in coming months, has already made contact with parties that could quickly snap up the historic music company - and Hands himself is even among them.

• Morgan Stanley: the new managing directors

  Morgan Stanley last night revealed that it had appointed 232 new managing directors, with women accounting for 16% of that figure. Financial News has pulled information from various souces on each of the managing directors and will be updating the list throughout the day.

• Greenhill expansion costs management their bonuses

  The senior management at US investment bank Greenhill & Co has given up cash bonuses for 2010 after the firm's “extraordinary expansion” hit profits last year.

• Grumbling at BofA pay shift

  Bank of America intends to give some investment bankers a greater share of their bonuses in cash, the latest Wall Street compensation move roiling banking chieftains as they meet in Davos, Switzerland.

• OFT underwriting report draws buyside fire

  The decision by the Office of Fair Trading not to refer the issue of rising underwriting fees to the Competition Commission was welcomed by investment banks this morning, reigniting a heated debate between the buyside and sellside on whether banks are overcharging companies for helping them raise capital.

• UKFI boss backs bonuses at state-owned banks

  The chief executive of the body managing the UK Government’s stakes in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group has spoken of the need to keep bonuses competitive at the nationalised banks.

• Moelis signals global ambitions with Asian acquisition

  US boutique Moelis & Company has signalled its international ambitions with the purchase of a financial advisory firm in Hong Kong. The move follows last week's opening of an office in Dubai and should add significantly to the firm's global presence, Moelis said.

• Ally Financial feels out banks for IPO

  Ally Financial is interviewing bankers this week for its initial public offering, according to two people familiar with the situation.

• Crisis panel blames all for meltdown

  The 2008 financial crisis was "avoidable" and brought on by the actions of government officials and private sector players, according to a blue ribbon panel's draft report that spreads blame broadly for the meltdown.

• Brevan Howard hires BofA Merrill prop trading duo

  Brevan Howard Asset Management has hired two credit traders from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, as hedge funds continue to take advantage of banks scaling back their proprietary trading activities in preparation for impending regulation.

• UniCredit to name IB head

  UniCredit may name Jean-Pierre Mustier to replace Sergio Ermotti as head of its corporate and investment banking division, Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore said, Bloomberg reported. Mustier is the favourite on a shortlist of three names. The paper said the bank may make a decision as early as next week.

• Demand Media raises $151.3m in IPO

  Demand Media, which provides budget video content for websites, has raised $151.3m in the first venture-backed public offering of the year in the US, Bloomberg reported. The California-based company sold 8.9 million shares at $17 each. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley led the offering. Underwriters will have the option of buying 1.125 million additional shares after the sale. The stock will start trading on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow.

• ChelPipe to raise up to $688m in London IPO

  ChelPipe, Russia's third-largest steel pipe maker, seeks to raise up to $688m in an initial public offering in London, Thomson Reuters reported. The firm will sell shares for between $3.50 to $4.60 each. JP Morgan is the sole global coordinator and bookrunner on the offering.

• Nielsen raises $1.6bn in IPO

  Nielsen Holdings, a television-audience ratings company owned by Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, KKR and Thomas Lee Partners, raised $1.6bn in the largest private equity-led initial public offering in the US since 2006, Bloomberg reported. Nielsen sold 71.4 million shares at $23 each.

• Financial crisis panel refers evidence to prosecutors

  A blue ribbon panel investigating the financial crisis has made several referrals of factual evidence from its probe to law enforcement agencies over the last year, according a person familiar with the matter.

• Merrill to pay $10m for misusing customer information

  Two recent developments highlight more alleged cases of bankers saying one thing, and doing another. With proprietary trading under the regulatory microscope, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Bank of America's Merrill Lynch with securities fraud for misusing customer information and charging undisclosed trading fees.

• World First names chairman of board

  Foreign exchange broker World First has named Sir David Clementi, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England, to become chairman of its board of directors, City AM reported. Clementi has been senior adviser to the firm since 2006 and is currently chairman of Kings Cross Central and director of The Royal Opera House.

• Crédit Agricole hires fixed income markets head

  Crédit Agricole has hired Pao Chatakanonta as head of fixed income markets for Thailand, Bloomberg reported. He will replace Mark Parsley who has been named head of trading for interest rate derivatives for Europe, Middle East and Africa based in London. Chatakanonta will report to Thierry Hebraud, Thailand senior country officer and Graham Williams, head of fixed income markets for Asia excluding Japan. Chatakanonta previously worked at Standard Chartered where he was head of rates product for Southeast Asia based in Singapore.

• Remuneration code: Any questions?

  Bankers, consultants and lawyers will tomorrow get their opportunity to quiz the Financial Services Authority on the regulators' new remuneration code, set out in December and effective January 1, as uncertainty around how financial institutions can pay their staff continues to swirl around the City.

• Unhappy with your bonus? You can always sue...

  It will be a brave banker indeed who decides to stick their head above the parapet and challenge a bonus in the courts this year.

• Credit Suisse and the €19bn black hole

  Credit Suisse is facing a Sfr24bn (€19bn) capital black hole, according to analysts at Matrix Group who initiated coverage of the European investment banking sector this morning with a particularly bearish note on the outlook for the industry.

• UniCredit builds on record year for ECM team

  UniCredit has a new head of equity capital markets execution in Europe, as the Italian bank looks to build on a strong 2010 in which it achieved its highest-ever position in the region's bookrunner rankings.

• RBS names global industrials head

  Royal Bank of Scotland has named Fazal Merchant as head of global industrials, Americas, within its global banking and markets division, Thomson Reuters reported. He joins from Barclays Capital where he was managing director in its global industrials group.

• Northland Capital hires sales trading head

  Investment bank Northland Capital Partners has hired Zeg Choudhry as head of sales trading in London. Choudhry joins from Piper Jaffray where he was head of pan-European sales trading. He will report to Bernie Leaver, head of trading.

• Newton bolsters Japan equity research

  Newton Investment Management, which is part of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has appointed Yuko Takano as Japanese research analyst. Takano will be responsible for providing leadership on Japanese equities, working closely with Newton’s 27-strong team of global equity analysts. Takano joins from Joho Capital in New York where she worked for several years as a senior equity research analyst. She started her career as a M&A; analyst at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo.

• Citi taps Deutsche for Europe equity research head

  Citi Investment Research and Analysis has hired Ross Jobber as deputy head of equity research for Europe, according to a memo sent to Citi staff seen by Financial News. He joins from Deutsche Bank where he was deputy head of the German bank's research globally.

• Standard Chartered to by GE Money for $1.8bn

  UK bank Standard Chartered has made a deal to buy GE Money, a car and personal loans specialist based in Singapore, for $1.8bn.

• Unicredit adds to ECM desk

  Italian bank Unicredit has bolstered its equity capital markets desk with the hires of Claudio Villa as head of execution and Rico Pedrett as a director. Villa joins from Future Group, where he was the chief executive of Future Investments, the investment arm of the company. He also previously held roles at Deutsche Bank, UBS and Credit Suisse First Boston. Pedrett joins us from CQS where he was responsible for developing and structuring new investment strategies, having previously worked at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.

• Matrix hires property credit analyst

  Matrix Group has hired Dipen Patel as credit analyst to its property division. Dipen, a commercial mortgage lending specialist, will report to Rick Gambetta, manager of the Matrix commercial mortgage fund. Dipen joins from Lloyds Banking Group where he was a senior analyst in the business support unit.

• RCG names non-executive directors

  Remuneration Consultants Group, the body which put together the voluntary code of conduct for executive remuneration consultants, has named Philippa Hird and William Claxton-Smith as non-executive directors, City AM reported. Hird was formerly group director of human resources at ITV while Claxton-Smith was head of corporate governance at Insight Investment.

• Moelis adds to consumer practice from BarCap

  Boutique investment banking advisory Moelis has added to its consumer practice in London with the hire of Alexandra Oldroyd as a managing director. Olroyd joins from Barclays Capital where she was a managing director and pan-European beverages analyst. She has also held similar roles at Morgan Stanley and Société Générale. In her new role she will advise clients in the consumer industry with a particular focus on the food and beverage sector, working closely alongside Benoit Renon, a managing director in the firm’s European consumer practice.

• Lazard secures third place in rankings

  Investment bank Lazard had added to its third place in the global mergers and acquisitions rankings by advising on Smurfit-Stone Container on its $4.2bn (€3.1bn) sale, after working for the paper packaging company on its restructuring and emergence from bankruptcy last year. Smurfit-Stone and rival RockTenn said in a statement that Smurfit-Stone will become a wholly owned subsidiary of RockTen in a deal which will create a $9bn company in in the North American paperboard packaging market. Lazard is currently third in the global M&A; rankings according to Dealogic, the investment banking research provider, behind number one JP Morgan and second-placed Barclays Capital.

• Europe's EFSF blow-out is great news, but macro problems remain

  The order book for the European Financial Stability Facility is a whopping eight times oversubscribed, giving the answer to a keenly watched test of demand for the markets, but the overall European situation remains unclear.

• SEC probes Goldman's ties to former Massachusetts treasurer

  The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed documents and communications from the Massachusetts State Treasurer's office, that office confirmed yesterday, focussing on the relationship between the state's former treasurer, Timothy Cahill; his staff and aides; and Goldman Sachs.

• BNP Paribas adds in high yield

  French bank BNP Paribas has hired Stan Hartman as a high yield syndicate manager on the bank’s global debt capital markets syndicate team. He joined this month from ING’s high yield DCM team, where he was responsible for the origination and execution of high yield and unrated DCM transactions for European clients. In his new role he is based in London, and reports to Fred Zorzi and Robert Whichello, co-heads of global syndicate.

• Banks split over new bonus rules

  A clear split is developing between investment banks that are adopting the spirit of new rules on bonus payments and those that are only following it to the letter, with some deferring payments for almost all staff and others doing so for only the most senior.

• Splitting up UK banks may make system safer

  UK banks with both retail- and investment-banking operations might be safer if those businesses were segregated, the head of a government-appointed body studying banking changes.

• Barclays names group financial controller

  Barclays has named John Worth as group financial controller, City AM reported. Worth joined Barclays in 2009 as a managing director, group financial control. He joined from Ernst & Young where he was a partner in banking and capital markets.

• RBC hires oil & gas research analyst

  RBC Capital Markets has hired Andrew Williams a director and research analyst covering the Australian oil and gas industry, Bloomberg reported. Williams joins from Credit Suisse and will be based in Melbourne.

• StanChart names Mena credit trading head

  Standard Chartered has named Rupesh Hindocha as regional head of credit trading for the Middle East and North Africa. Hindocha will be based in Dubai. Standard Chartered has also set up a dedicated foreign exchange trading desk for the Turkish market which will be manned by Altan Dundar who joins from Citi bank.

• Koks to raise $480m in share sale

  Koks, the largest exporter of pig iron, is seeking to raise $480m in a share sale in London and Moscow, Bloomberg reported. Koks is offering ordinary shares at between $6.25 and $8, with global depositary receipts at between $12.50 and $16. Citigroup, UBS and VTB Capital are managing the sale.