By Saeed Azhar
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Morgan Stanley has named Eli Gross and Simon Smith as the new global co-heads of investment banking, as part of a leadership shakeup at the top of one of Wall Street’s most powerful deals advisory group.
The current investment banking heads, Mark Eichorn and Susie Huang, have been elevated to executive chairs of the division to lead a newly formed group of senior bankers, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. A spokesperson from the bank confirmed the contents of the memo.
In their new roles, Einhorn and Huang will be tasked with deepening the bank’s dealmaking efforts across industry groups and geographies, according to the memo.
Smith has spent the past seven years leading Morgan Stanley’s European investment banking franchise, the memo said. Gross headed investment banking for transportation, freightech, logistics and infrastructure, according to his Linkedin profile.
The new investment banking heads will continue to partner closely with Mo Assomull, who will continue to run global capital markets, the memo said.
Morgan Stanley has advised on several high-profile deals this year, including Broadcom’s $69 billion acquisition of VMWare. It is also advising Elon Musk, who had signed an agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year, before announcing last week that he longer wished to go ahead with the deal.
The leadership reshuffle comes at a time when dealmaking is faced with a near-term slowdown, amid fears of a recession. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) volumes fell sharply in the first half of the year, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rattled global markets.
According to Dealogic, M&A volumes plunged by a quarter to $1 trillion.
The Financial Times reported about the changes at Morgan Stanley earlier on Monday.
(Reporting by Saeed Azhar in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
