Moelis goes for the Silver

The financial crisis has left some executives skittish about hiring, but not Mark Aedy, the new London head of Moelis & Co. LLC. In July he added another senior banker, Caroline Silver, to the firm's European ranks, signaling again that Europe is important territory for the rapidly expanding U.S. investment bank founded in 2007 by Ken Moelis, the former Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. and UBS banker.

"We're planning to become an investment bank, not a boutique, providing excellent execution as well as high quality content, so there's no reason why in time Moelis in Europe shouldn't be about the same size as it is in the U.S. and provide 50% of the firm's fee income," Aedy says. He started work at the firm in June after he was recruited from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he was head of European corporate and investment banking.

Since Moelis is 200-strong in the U.S., Aedy has ample ambition.

If the business does indeed expand to such a size, it would be unusually large in Europe for a bank that does not deploy its balance sheet, although in the U.S. there is a $1 billion private equity fund.

"We're not setting any league table targets yet. But Moelis was a top 10 M&A adviser in the U.S. in 2008 and is currently one of the top three restructuring advisers, and we want to follow their example of working on both big-cap and midcap transactions," Aedy says.

Since September, Moelis has hired 12 professionals in London, beginning with Kristian Bagger, a former vice chairman of investment banking at Deutsche Bank AG. "I'd rather get it right slowly rather than wrong quickly. It's easy to hire second-rate talent, but I want to wait and hire first-rate talent. We'll be hiring through 2009 and 2010," Aedy says.

Silver, vice chairman of investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and previously head of the European financial institutions group at Morgan Stanley, was hired by Aedy at Merrill Lynch in May 2008.

As a managing director at Moelis, she will focus first on building the European financial institutions team, with help from John Binnie, another new managing director in New York. Aedy has also hired Kasim Kutay, who previously led Morgan Stanley's healthcare investment banking team.

Building a restructuring team in Europe is another top priority. Led by former Close Brothers Corporate Finance Ltd. managing director Matthew Prest, also recruited recently along with Charles Noel-Johnson, the group will shortly double to eight with the addition of junior bankers.

Aedy believes Moelis has timed its expansion well.

"The advisory market is very competitive. But we are assembling a team of top people that will win business based on high-quality content, sound judgment and independent advice, and a restructuring team that is particularly relevant now. As our hiring continues, we should be well placed when there is an upturn in M&A and IPOs in 2010," he says.