After several years of heavy hiring, investment bank Jefferies will make only selected hires to bolster groups that have already been established, bank officials said yesterday when announcing second quarter results.
"Across the board, both product-wise and geographically, we think we now have a substantial portion of the long-term architecture of our firm," said Brian Friedman, chairman of the executive committee, on a conference call to discuss the results. "Our emphasis is in going deeper, growing our market share, getting the benefit of the maturation of the people that have come onto our platform over the last couple of years."
The firm said it had 3,809 employees at the end of the second quarter, down 42 people from the first quarter. Peregrine Broadbent, chief financial officer, said that reduction reflects "ongoing efforts to streamline and create efficiencies within our support functions."
A spokesman for Jefferies declined to comment.
Friedman said that the firm's focus "is not in geographic expansion but rather in deepening our results within the products and the capabilities we have." In other words, the firm will selectively add people with expertise. For example, it recently hired a director in metals and mining for its Canadian office and a banker with pipeline expertise for its energy sector.
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(Source: MoneyWatch)