Davy lures Amundi’s Martin Dolan to head research team

Davy has hired an Irish-based equities fund manager with French investment giant Amundi, Martin Dolan, to become its next head of equity research, as the Irish stockbroker prepares to be taken over by Bank of Ireland in the wake of a bond-trade scandal, according to sources.

Mr Dolan joined Pioneer Investments in Dublin in 2013 as a consumer analyst, four years before Amundi acquired the asset manager. He became a full-time portfolio manager for Europe's largest asset manager, which has €1.8 trillion of clients' money under management, early last year.

Mr Dolan had previously worked as a consumer analyst in investment banking giants Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse. He also served as head of equity research at Espirito Santo Investment Bank between 2010 and early 2013, before the wider Portugal-based Espirito Santo group ran into trouble the following year and the investment banking unit subsequently sold on to China's Haitong Securities.

Wealth management

From December, Mr Dolan will report to Damian Roddy, head of the institutional group within Davy Capital Markets, the firm's staff were told in an email in recent days. The appointment follows on from Davy's previous long-standing head of research, Barry Dixon, taking on the job late last year of establishing a renewable energy team within the group's corporate finance division.

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Bank of Ireland agreed in July to buy the core Davy stockbroking and wealth-management business for an enterprise value of €440 million, with the possibility of up to €40 million of further payments from 2025, subject to the performance of the business.

Davy also entered deals at the same time to sell its fund servicing and fund management unit to Luxembourg-based IQ-EQ as well as its 63 per cent stake in Rize ETF, a UK-based exchange traded funds business, to AssetCo.

Davy put itself on the market in March as the firm grappled with the fallout from a €4.1 million Central Bank fine relating to a bond trade dating back to 2014. Davy was found to be in breach of market rules for failing to identify whether a conflict of interest existed as 16 employees bought junior bonds in Anglo Irish Bank from a client in November 2014 without disclosing that they were the buyers. Davy kept its own compliance officials in the dark on the deal.