Merrill loses sixth broker to rival.

Financial News, April, 2004

Investment bank Merrill Lynch has lost a sixth member of its corporate broking team to a rival. Josh Critchley has resigned as a director in Merrill's corporate broking team to take up a similar post at rival Goldman Sachs.Critchley, son of the late Conservative MP and writer Julian Critchley, is understood to have submitted his resignation just a few days before five members of the team left for Morgan Stanley. The five include Paul Baker, Merrill's former co-head of corporate broking, and Peter Moorhouse, managing director.

Goldman Sachs is currently broker or joint broker to six FTSE 100 companies compared with 29 at Merrill Lynch. However, Goldmans' clients include HSBC and Vodafone, the UK's biggest and second-biggest companies.