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| Isaacs: On our own terms |
Almost unnoticed, Lehman Brothers has managed to position itself to become a formidable player in European investment management. Over the past two years, the US house has been quietly building up its investment management platform in Europe, encompassing asset management, private equity and private wealth management businesses, and now looks set to cement its position with the appointment of Thierry Sciard. Sciard, former global head of capital markets at Calyon, is taking on the newly created role of head of investment management for Europe, overseeing all three business sections and piecing together the businesses that Lehman has accrued.
In the absolute-return business, Lehman has been building its presence globally by taking non-controlling minority stakes in such hedge fund managers as Ospraie and GLG. And while acquisitions in firms such as Neuberger Berman, private-equity firm Crossroads and the fixed-income asset management business of Lincoln have signalled Lehman's intentions of increasing its investment management business in the US, its building of investment management in Europe has widely gone unnoticed.
Over the past two years, though, the firm has taken small minority stakes in European-based hedge fund managers and last year employed Robert Sargent from Morgan Stanley to head the European asset management part of the business.