March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private-equity firm with $76 billion under management, hired UBS AG banker Olivier Sarkozy as co-head of financial-services investments.

Sarkozy, the half-brother of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been at UBS since 2003 and two years ago was named joint global head of the Zurich-based bank's financial institutions group. He will join the firm in April and continue to work from New York, Carlyle said in a statement today.

Carlyle, headed by David Rubenstein, started a financial- services group last year and has brought in executives including Sandy Warner, former chairman of New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., and David Moffett, ex-finance chief of U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis. Sarkozy will run the group with David Zwiener, former president of Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.'s property and casualty insurance unit.

``He has an incredible track record and network that will help Carlyle capitalize on the dislocation in the financial- services sector,'' Rubenstein said in the statement.

Sarkozy, 38, was at Credit Suisse Group prior to joining UBS. He worked on First Union Corp.'s 2001 purchase of Wachovia Corp., a transaction valued at $14.9 billion. He also advised ABN Amro Bank NV on its sale last year of LaSalle Bank to Bank of America Corp.

Carlyle's newly formed group has yet to complete a transaction. The nine-person team also includes Randal Quarles, former under secretary of the U.S. Treasury for domestic finance.

String of Departures

Sarkozy's departure is the latest by senior UBS investment bankers. Kenneth Moelis, the ex-president of UBS's investment bank, left last year to start his own firm in New York. Ken Costa, formerly chairman of investment banking for Europe, went to New York-based Lazard Ltd.

John Cryan, who's been running the UBS financial institutions group alongside Sarkozy, will become sole head, based in London, UBS said today in an internal memorandum.

Gary Howe and Halle Benett will jointly run the unit's Americas operations, and Ian Gladman and Edouard de Vitry will join David Soanes as co-heads of the unit for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Kelly in New York at jkelly14@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 3, 2008 14:13 EST