By Olivia Oran
May 8 (Reuters) - Guggenheim Partners has poached seniorbankers from Barclays Plc's retail team as the $180billion asset manager looks to bolster its investment bankingbusiness.
The moves highlight a broader trend across Wall Street -senior bulge bracket bankers defecting to boutiques with lessregulatory scrutiny and more favorable compensation structures.
New York and Chicago-based Guggenheim has hired formerBarclays head of investment banking for retail companies andvice chairman Andrew Taussig as well as managing directorsSpencer Hart, Matthew Pilla, Ken Harada and Ryan Mash, the firmsaid in a press release last week.
Prior to Barclays, Taussig, Hart, Pilla and Harada allworked together at Credit Suisse First Boston andLehman Brothers.
Taussig, one of the most prominent retail bankers on WallStreet, has worked with large retail companies including ReebokInternational Ltd, Home Depot Inc, CVS Caremark Corp and Staples Inc.
The group joins Peter Comisar, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and now vice chairman and head of West Coast banking forGuggenheim who joined the firm in 2009 and has worked on retaildeals including teen retailer Hot Topic Inc's recentsale to Sycamore Partners for about $600 million.
Guggenheim also announced on Wednesday it had advised FootLocker Inc in its acquisition of German shoe store chainRunners Point Group for around $94 million.
Guggenheim is looking to build out its presence ininvestment banking, restructuring, real estate and digital mediaby hiring aggressively. Recent hires include former Jefferiesbanker Michael Henkin as co-head of its restructuring practice,former Apollo Global Management LLC executive HenrySilverman as global head of real estate and infrastructure andformer Yahoo! executive Ross Levinsohn, who is headingup a new digital media unit at the firm.
In 2009, Guggenheim brought in former Bear Stearns CEO AlanSchwartz to help the firm expand.
Guggenheim's expansion comes at a time of tumult at WallStreet's bulge bracket banks. Bank consolidation as well as afocus on reducing leverage has caused mass layoffs.
At large banks, new regulations and corporate governancereforms are also pushing firms to place more pay in companystock and deferrals over a period of years. This has caused adramatic shift in not just how much bankers are getting paid,but when they get paid.
At Morgan Stanley, for example, high earners areseeing 100 percent of their bonuses deferred over three years.
Boutique banks, meanwhile, typically aren't subject to thesame compensation regulations as their larger peers and haveenticed potential hires with all-cash bonuses, as Jefferies didin 2012.
Within the last several years, senior bankers have leftlarge banks for boutiques like Guggenheim, Lazard Ltd,Evercore Partners Inc, Centerview Partners and Moelis.
"Many boutiques are growth companies with solid businessmodels versus an unknown business model for a financialconglomerate where you've seen banking jobs eliminated," saidMichael Wong, an analyst with Morningstar. "Boutiques havebenefited from the exodus of people from these large banks."
Barclays (BARC)