When Euromoney met Duncan Sankey for coffee in London's Piccadilly, close by his office at Cheyne Capital, he seemed pretty relaxed about his new job. That's one of the main reasons that he took it. The former head of credit research at Nomura in London is the latest in a stream of senior analysts to migrate from sell side to buy side. As for others before him, one of the attractions was a better quality of life.
"I still work hard but there's greater flexibility in terms of hours. I'm also travelling a lot less," he says. "I used to be gone about once a fortnight plus lots of interrupted weekends. I've got a 14-year-old daughter so I wanted to spend more time with my family."
Escape from bureaucracy
Sankey started at Cheyne as senior credit analyst in September. The firm is a hedge fund specializing in convertibles, equities and investment-grade credit default swaps, as well as research and portfolio management. Sankey is working alongside the CDO structuring team. "It's a very professional but relaxed environment," he says. "I'm basically going back to my roots, researching credit and picking out relative value plays."
Having spent three years at Nomura and, before that, about two years in credit research at PaineWebber and Greenwich, he was keen to leave the sell side. "I think regulation will sort this out but at the moment sell-side research is slightly compromised," he says. Sankey was also keen to leave sell-side bureaucracy behind him, particularly the trials of middle management. "Running a sell-side research effort can be like an exercise in plate-spinning," he says. "There are so many different constituents to please. It was just getting more and more bureaucratic."
In his new job, by contrast, Sankey spends much more time working rather than sitting in meetings. He even says that the pay is much more competitive on the buy side these days: "The differential between that and the buy side is evening out now."
Sankey previously knew one other person at Cheyne, George Spentzos, who he had worked with at Nomura, but he says that he is impressed by the whole team. The firm was set up by the convertible bond management team of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 2000 and he describes the team as "top notch".
Lateral thinker
Although Sankey is in his first job on the buy side, he has not always been devoted to the sell side – before working at PaineWebber and Greenwich, he spent about six years at Moody's Investor Services in London and New York. "I think a lot of my career to date has been about being in the right place at the right time," he says.
He has always enjoyed his job. "I don't think anyone leaves university and says 'I want to be a credit analyst' but it has been intellectually and financially rewarding," he says. He is not CFA qualified and does not have business or finance qualifications.
Sankey's degree course was in modern and medieval languages. He thinks a languages background has been beneficial. "I think it makes you more rounded. It develops better writing skills and lateral thinking."
He hopes his new job will allow him to spend more time reading, pursuing his interest in photography and spending time with his wife and daughter at his home in Wimbledon in south-west London. "The first week I was walking in and my daughter was saying 'what the hell are you doing here?' but I think she's getting used to having me around a bit more now."