Case Study for Fixed Income

Case Study for Fixed Income
Written by Alex Drummond

Armstrong International were approached by a core client, a leading Global Investment Bank, to assist in performing a review of their flow credit operation in Europe. The project would entail the provision of an in depth comparative analysis the equivalent businesses in the street, on the back of which a strategy would be defined with regard to senior level hiring across multiple disciplines (sales, trading, research), and into multiple financial centres around Europe. Having worked together for over two decades, the client was confident in Armstrong International’s ability to deliver on the complex brief. 

They knew we had an in depth, technical understanding of the applicable markets, coupled with the breadth of coverage to ensure a process that was executed efficiently, discretely and professionally – based off impeccable research and an unrivalled network. Delivery of this mandate presented a number of nuanced and specific challenges. 

Clearly the significant investment being made into the business needed to be made apparent to the targeted individuals, though discretion and sensitivity were of paramount importance. ‘Noise’ in any market invariably leads to mixed and conflicting reports amongst its participants, often eliminating potential hires that otherwise could have been made if they’d received a coherent pitch. Armstrong’s task in this instance was to ensure that the absolute best-in-class of each of the applicable markets was made available to our client, without the candidate pool having been negatively influenced by any inefficiencies or misplaced targeting during our process. 

Consideration also needed to be given to our client’s incumbent staff and Armstrong International assisted in ensuring that the specific hires being made were appropriately positioned within the organisation. Based off our market intelligence, our client was able to identify avenues via which incumbent mandates could be amended or developed (where necessary/desired) so that sufficient space existed for all employees post the full execution of the project. A number of considerations relating to the mandate were assessed and defined prior to its externalisation into the market. Targets were pre-identified using our unmatched network of connections/referees in the broader financial services ecosystem, and a clear, coherent and appropriate pitch was agreed upon to ensure that the opportunities were delivered professionally and received favourably. 

Resources were pre-allocated to reflect the scale of each applicable market, and assessments were performed ahead of time to ensure that our process would be fully inclusive of all backgrounds. Contingency plans were put in place for all eventualities, meaning that plan Bs, Cs, Ds etc. could be seamlessly implemented when required. 

We knew who we were going to approach, when we were going to approach them, and how the approaches would be made to the minutest detail, with enough ‘redundancy’ in our predefined strategy that nothing was left to chance. This diligent and thorough preparatory work is what enabled Armstrong International to optimally deliver the mandate to the market and, as a result, ultimately achieve the best possible outcome for our client.