Merrill Lynch & Co.'s thundering herd continues to hit the trails as more bankers flood out of the firm as it integrates with Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC).
The latest high-profile Merrill banker to leave is Kalpana Desai, the head of Asia-Pacific mergers and acquisitions. During Desai's 11 years at Merrill, the bank advised on several major deals including UFJ Holdings on its $63 billion merger with Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group.
Desai may not be the only notable departure from Merrill's Asia-Pacific units. Numerous reports have said Merrill's China investment banking chairman, Margaret Ren, left the bank. Ren is also daughter-in-law of former Chinese premier Zhao Ziyang.
Meanwhile, the Merrill exodus isn't limited to the Asia-Pacific group. BofA-Merrill's head of airlines and aircraft leasing investment banking for the Americas, Michael Masterson, recently left for Deutsche Bank AG (NYSE:DB). Masterson will join Deutsche as a managing director and co-head of Americas transportation and infrastructure alongside Craig Fuehrer. Masterson began his investment banking career in 1997 at Merrill Lynch.
Last month, Merrill bankers Alan Hartman, Richard Girling and Mark Robinson joined Centerview Partners LLC, which opened offices in London and San Francisco, to build its healthcare practice. Hartman was Merrill's head of Americas mergers and acquisitions and global head of healthcare M&A, and Girling and Robinson were global co-heads of Merrill's healthcare investment banking group.
Collectively, that trio had worked on deals including Pfizer Inc.'s (NYSE:PFE) $68 billion planned acquisition of Wyeth, Sanofi-Synthelabo's $63 billion acquisition of Aventis, the $25 billion leveraged buyout of Alliance Boots plc, AstraZeneca plc's (NYSE:AZN) $15 billion acquisition of MedImmune, Idec Pharmaceuticals' $6 billion merger with Biogen and Boston Scientific Corp.'s (NYSE:BSX) $25 billion acquisition of Guidant Corp.
For more Merrill departures, see The Deal's Merrill Lynch Exodus Dealwatch. - Baz Hiralal
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