The Brain Drain At Ing Barings

Fifteen months ago, Hessel Lindenbergh got a hero's welcome from employees of Barings PLC. In early March of 1995, the now chairman of ING Barings strode into Barings' London trading floor to announce that the Dutch insurance and banking giant had won approval to buy Barings for $1.02 billion. That meant Britain's oldest merchant bank, which had gone bust a few weeks earlier after huge losses rung up by Singapore trader Nicholas Leeson, would be saved from near-certain breakup. With enormous relief, hundreds of Barings stockbrokers and analysts gave Lindenbergh a standing ovation.

But neither Lindenbergh nor Aad G. Jacobs, chairman of ING Group, is getting much applause these days. A more noticeable sound at ING Barings is the swoosh of the revolving door. In the last month, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell poached at least 60 members of Barings' top-rated but money-losing Latin American equities team, leaving in places skeleton crews. ING Barings' Americas unit chairman, Lane Grijns, is now searching for an experienced equities hand to become his president, after having two ING people go through the job since last November. ING Barings' well-respected global equities strategist in London, Michael Howell, is starting his own consulting firm, taking the global head of equity sales and three others. A few members of the Asian equity team, including former Asian equities head Andrew Fraser, have already left, and larger numbers may be set to bolt, too.