(Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. hired James Lucas from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to help lead the firm’s efforts with advising financial institutions across Europe, according to people familiar with the matter.
Lucas will join as co-head of the financial institutions group in Europe, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. Representatives for both JPMorgan and Goldman declined to comment.
Lucas was named a managing director at Goldman in 2017, according to a press release at the time. He was among the advisers listed for a group of private equity suitors that agreed to buy the investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in a £5.4 billion ($5.7 billion) deal earlier this year.
Lucas is making the jump amid a wave of bank consolidation and asset-management merger activity in Europe.
Just this month, Banco BPM SpA rebuffed an unsolicited approach by UniCredit SpA — a move that came after the latter bank’s Chief Executive Officer Andrea Orcel determined the probability of him buying Germany’s Commerzbank AG is lower than previously expected. Over in Spain, BBVA has continued to try to convince authorities that its potential takeover of rival Banco Sabadell SA won’t create competition issues.
That’s meant bankers who can advise these financial institutions are in high demand. For instance, the advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, which is known for its restructuring business, recently hired a number of FIG bankers from large Wall Street firms.
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