Zurich – Nick Bossart, the head of Switzerland for the U.S. investment bank JP Morgan, is moving to Rothschild & Co. to lead its Swiss advisory business for mergers and capital market transactions, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.
A representative from Rothschild & Co. confirmed the change, which will happen on October 1.
The French investment bank wants to grow its share of the Swiss market with Bossart.
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Bossart was in charge of JP Morgan’s investment banking in Switzerland for 10 years, and since 2014, he has also been the country head. During this time, he turned JP Morgan into Switzerland’s third-largest investment bank, after Credit Suisse and UBS.
He played a key role in a number of large deals, such as ChemChina’s $46 billion purchase of agrochemical company Syngenta, DSV’s purchase of logistics company Panalpina, and On Running’s IPO in the U.S.
He worked at Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) and UBS before he joined JP Morgan. In July, J.P. Morgan said that Bossart was leaving and that Reinout Bottcher would take his place.
One of the sources said that he wanted to spend less time managing and more time making deals and giving advice to firms.
Rothschild & Co. is still run by the family that started it. Two-thirds of its income comes from transaction advisory services, and the rest comes from other services, such as managing assets for wealthy private clients and professional investors. Rothschild & Co. does not offer loans like the big banks do, either through its own balance sheet or through high-yield bonds. This limits its ways to make money, but it also makes it easier for it to give corporate clients independent advice. It is in a strong position, especially in deals that are in the middle.
One source said that Bossart wants to move more into the business of advising on financing and restructuring, in addition to its main business of advising on takeovers and IPOs, and to hire more people than the 10 it has now.
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Gian Reto Conrad, who runs the Swiss advisory business now and worked with Bossart at UBS, will stay at Rothschild & Co.
