two businessmen shaking handsGeorge Doyle/Getty Images
Two Vancouver investment firms have expanded their teams.
Investment dealer Salman Partners Inc. is welcoming Rahim Rajwani back to the company. He will be a managing partner and the firm's vice president of corporate development starting Oct. 27.
Mr. Rajwani joins the team just a few months after Salman Partners acquired rival independent dealer Woodstone Capital Inc., driven in part by Woodstone's high-net-worth investor base.
"The business has changed and we have to diversify our revenue base," said Terry Salman, chief executive of Salman Partners. Persistently slow markets and volatile commodity prices have put pressure on firms that focus on trading and underwriting stocks in recent years. "We were heavily resources-based, like a lot of dealers in Canada, and facing the same challenges," he said.
Mr. Salman recalls lean years during his time at Nesbitt Thompson (a brokerage firm that would later be bought by Bank of Montreal) where the firm benefited from expanding its platform through acquisitions. "You have to grow... It's not a panacea, but we thought this was a good way to diversify," he said of the deal.
Mr. Salman said he's glad Mr. Rajwani has returned, because he's trustworthy and young enough to bring new ideas to the firm.
In his new role, Mr. Rajwani will "lead this business development initiative and the risk mitigation for the new retail sales division," the firm said in a statement. He will also work with the institutional side of the business to strengthen the firm's investment banking business.
Salman is considering acquiring other businesses, possibly one with strengths in mergers and acquisitions, or entering into a partnership with an international group in Asia or Europe.
"People have approached us. You just need to get bigger to take advantage of opportunities," Mr. Salman said.
Mr. Rajwani is rejoining Salman Partners after working at Peninsula Merchant Syndications Corp. and most recently as chief compliance officer at Wolverton Securities Ltd.
A few minutes walk down Vancouver's West Pender St., investment firm Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. said Thursday it will build out its institutional fixed income team.
The company hired Ben Homsy in August to join the institutional portfolio management team, with a focus on building the fixed income business and adding new investment products.
Mr. Homsy joined Leith Wheeler from the San Francisco office of JPMorgan Chase & Co. where he headed up the firm's institutional foreign exchange sales business for Western Canada and the U.S. West coast. He has also worked in the U.K. offices of JPMorgan as well as Goldman Sachs Group Inc..
Jim Gilliland, chief executive of Leith Wheeler, praised Mr. Homsy's international experience. "The timing is right for this strategic addition to our team, given our strong performance and growing client interest in our fixed-income offering," he said.