UniCredit chief quits as Aton relaunches

Financial News

Jason Corcoran in Moscow
03 June 2009

UniCredit Securities in Moscow, which has lost staff to resurrected investment bank Aton in recent weeks, has been dealt another blow with the departure of its chief executive and head of investment banking.

UniCredit confirmed Alexander Kandel was leaving the bank for “personal reasons”.

A spokeswoman declined to comment on whether Kandel would join Aton at a later stage. “Alexander will remain with the group for the forseeable future to ensure a smooth handover of his responsibilities,” she said.

Kandel was chief executive of Aton Capital for three and half years until UniCredit bought its institutional business in July 2007 for $424m .

The Aton brand was subsequently dropped in February this year and the Russian business was renamed UniCredit Securities.

However, Evgeny Yuriev, the president and founder of Aton Capital, is re-entering the investment banking market after retaining the Aton Line discount brokerage and Aton asset management businesses.

Aton is building a full service investment bank and is looking to hire up to 50 bankers, according to recruiters.

Sources close to UniCredit said they were dismayed by the move. Both operations are located in the same building in central Moscow. UniCredit confirmed Aton had already recruited four of its staff, including head of equity trading Denis Sarantsev.

UniCredit said Steven Dashevsky, its head of equities, would remain with the group.

Sources close to UniCredit said Martin Rauchenwald, head of markets and investment banking for Russia, had left at the end of last year and is working as a self-employed adviser in Vienna.

Rauchenwald, an Austrian and a former global head of equities at UniCredit, was brought on board to help integrate UniCredit’s acquisitions of Aton and the International Moscow Bank in Russia.