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Goodbody sees senior exits after redundancy programme

Head of equity research among top staff to leave firm

A number of top staff are leaving Goodbody. Photograph: iStock

Joe Brennan
Wed Jan 24 2024 - 06:00

Goodbody Stockbrokers has seen a number of senior staff quit in recent days, following a voluntary redundancy programme during the autumn that targeted 20 jobs, as its investment banking unit continues to be hit by a global slowdown in deals and expected acceleration of large companies leaving the Irish stock market.

David O’Brien, who was named head of equity research in October, has handed in his notice to take on a role with insulation manufacturer Kingspan in Co Cavan, according to sources.

John Flynn, a director in the firm’s corporate finance unit, has also quit and is understood to have another position lined up. It follows former fellow corporate finance director Stephen Kane deciding to leave Goodbody in October to become director of corporate finance at housebuilder Cairn Homes.

David Kearney, the company’s former head of corporate broking, also left the company late last year, after 18 years.

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Separately, Colm Ryan, who had headed up Goodbody’s fixed income – or bond desk – and was a key player in the firm being named last June as a primary dealer for Irish Government bonds, left the company just before Christmas.

Mr Ryan’s departure, however, was a delayed one under the voluntary redundancy plan announced in early October. Garret Grogan, a former global head of trading at Bank of Ireland who joined Goodbody two years ago, has been named as Mr Ryan’s successor, sources said.

The firm missed out on being named as one of the international banks and securities firms hired earlier this month to sell €3 billion of bonds for the Government.

Goodbody, which has been led by chief executive Martin Tormey since it was bought by AIB two years ago, told staff last October not to expect bonuses for a second straight year under the bank’s ownership.

The warning came weeks after the firm moved to cut about 20 of then 100 investment banking unit jobs, amid actual and planned stock market exits and a dearth of stock market flotations.

CRH, traditionally the largest company on the Iseq, quit Euronext Dublin in September as it moved its main listing from London to New York. Paddy Power’s parent company, Flutter Entertainment, is on track to follow suit next Monday. Smurfit Kappa, another Iseq bellwether, also plans to exit the Irish market this year and move its main listing to Wall Street as part of a planned merger with US peer WestRock.

Goodbody revealed in November that it had swung to a loss of €15.8 million in 2022 as fee income slumped amid weak equity markets and money made from its own securities trading book also slid. It made a profit of €3.2 million in the previous year.

The company had about 350 employees before the targeted job cuts and subsequent senior exits. However, it also acquired Clearstream Solutions, an environmental, social and governance consultancy that has 15 employees, in October.

AIB sold Goodbody in 2011 to Kerry-based financial services group Fexco and the firm’s management team as it offloaded what were seen as noncore assets in the wake of the bank’s government bailout. The bank bought Goodbody back in September 2021 for €138 million.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times

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