Merrill Lynch poaches DrKW prime broking heads

US investment bank Merrill Lynch has hired Paul Dackombe and Gary Francis to head up its prime brokerage business.

Dackombe and Francis were formerly in charge of prime broking at German investment bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wassertein. Dresdner Kleinwort Wassertein has promoted Hamish Anderson, Jesper Bang and Mark Croxon as co-heads of prime broking to replace them.

Anderson will spearhead sales and marketing, Bang will run control client services and Croxon will take responsibility for business management. All three are based in London.

Bang and Croxon will report to Walter Kraushaar, global head of prime brokerage in Frankfurt who retains overall control of prime brokerage. Anderson will report to Angela Osborne, head of hedge fund sales.

Merrill Lynch said it has made the appointments to help initiate its fixed income prime brokerage operations in Europe. The firm has focussed on growing its prime brokerage business during the past two years.

This development comes only seven months after Dresdner Kleinwort Wassertein, which only entered the prime brokerage field in 2002, lost its former head of the business, Martin Keller. He quit for a new position as global head of hedge fund investments at Deutsche Bank.