Structured moves

Cheril Lee has quit Société Générale in Hong Kong to head Goldman Sachs' warrants business for Asia excluding Japan.

Lee joins the US securities firm as executive director and will be based in Hong Kong.

At SG, Lee was responsible for its equity derivatives and structured products in Asia excluding Japan.

Deutsche Bank Securities is expanding its retail team with the appointment of Christopher Yeagley as a director and head of retail structuring within the global markets division and Scott Milner as a vice-president in retail structuring.

Both Yeagley and Milner will be based in New York and responsible for creating structured products for retail clients throughout the Americas.

Yeagley joins the Deutsche team after spending eight years at Merrill Lynch, where he was a director in structured products origination. Milner join from ABN Amro, where he was assistant vice-president in global equity derivatives.

Wilmington Trust Investment Management (WTIM) has named Stephen Davenport as its head of derivatives, a newly created position.

WTIM, a subsidiary of US wealth manager Wilmington Trust, says it is increasing its derivatives expertise to deal with market risk and tax avoidance for wealthy clients.

Davenport joins WTIM from Columbia Management Investment Advisors, where he led the risk management group.

Nine members of Morgan Stanley's US equity derivatives and structured product team have quit to join Wachovia. They are the latest in a staff exodus from the US investment bank that its senior executives hope will be stemmed by the resignation of embattled chief executive Philip Purcell.

Three Morgan Stanley managing directors – Ajay Khanna, Richard Sandulli and Richard Silva – join Wachovia's equity division, as well as six structured products professionals – Don Brudie, George George, David Haynes, Meghan Maloney, Scott Miller and William Threadgill.

Khanna, formerly an academic, was head of North America equity derivatives trading at Morgan Stanley; Sandulli was co-head of US institutional and retail structured derivatives, as well as head of equity products innovation, and Silva was co-head of US institutional and retail equity structured products.

South Africa's Absa has strengthened its merchant banking team with the establishment of an independent structured products business unit. The new unit consists of eight team members formerly from Escher Structured Products (ESP).

André Visser has been appointed to head the business unit.

"We were presented a compelling opportunity to integrate a premier structured products team into Absa's merchant banking division with a view to position Absa as a leader in this industry," says Ian Henstock, deputy managing executive of Absa Corporate and Merchant Banking.

The department will focus on providing capital-protected and other alternative investment portfolios to the institutional and retail market.

RBS raiders bolster European distribution

The Royal Bank of Scotland has raided its rivals' sales desks by hiring three directors in equity derivative sales to cover Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. The move signals the Edinburgh-based bank's intent on improving its distribution capabilities in continental Europe.

Annabelle Wegner will join as director of equity derivatives sales for Germany, having spent four years covering German clients at Morgan Stanley and previously three years in Deutsche Bank's global equity group.

Francesco Cantone was appointed as director of equity derivatives sales for Italy, joining the Scottish bank from Merrill Lynch, where he had worked since 2000 in the equity structured solution group with responsibility for Italian clients.

Michael Nelskyla was hired as director of equity derivatives sales for Scandinavia, after four years at Société Générale, where he was responsible for equity derivatives structured products.

All three will be based in London and report to Geoffroy Wallier, head of equity derivatives structuring and marketing, and Sian Hurrell, head of structured solution sales at Royal Bank of Scotland.