Barker is a veteran at UBS. He has been with the firm since 1990 across Australia, Europe and, most recently, Asia where he relocated in 1998. He has been based in Hong Kong since then, with the exception of around a one-year stint back in Australia.
Until the end of 2006, Barker was head of the M&A practice at UBS. He is widely credited with creating a standing for the Swiss bank in M&A league tables in the region. In September 2006, UBS pulled off a coup bringing on board Matt Hanning from Morgan Stanley as head of M&A.
The Swiss bank said then that Barker would move on to head coverage of financial sponsors for the bank. The move was positioned as reflecting BarkerÆs desire to do something new, and the bankÆs intention to strengthen its coverage of a fast-growing area.
Gore is currently part of the Hong Kong investment banking team for UBS. He will now wear two hats as he will continue to service some key clients in addition to his new responsibility. Sources close to the development say Gore will work closely with Hanning and Steve Bennett, head of leveraged finance.
In a strange way, Barker is following the lead of Warren Woo, the global head of financial sponsors and leveraged finance origination for UBS, who resigned from the firm in March 2006, quite soon after he was appointed to the role. Woo went on to start his own fund, Breakaway Capital in 2007.
It is not clear where Barker is going but it is being speculated that he will move to one of the banks seeking to strengthen its alternatives and advisory franchise in Asia, for example Deutsche Bank. Others say he could form part of the wave that is seeing bankers move to the buy-side.
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