JPMorgan has poached a top banker from Morgan Stanley in one of the hottest hiring areas in investment banking

Thomson Reuters

• JPMorgan Chase has hired a senior investment banker from Morgan Stanley to add more firepower to the firm's industrials coverage.
• Lawrence Steyn joins JPMorgan as a vice chairman and was previously a managing director covering industrial companies at Morgan Stanley.
• While industrials deal activity hasn't been outsized in 2018, it's been among the hottest sectors for banker moves this year.

JPMorgan Chase has hired a senior investment banker from Morgan Stanley to add more firepower to the firm's industrials coverage, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.

Lawrence Steyn, formerly a managing director with Morgan Stanley, is joining JPMorgan as a vice chairman of investment banking, according to the memo from Eric Stein, the firm's head of North American investment banking. The contents of the memo were confirmed by a spokeswoman.

"Lawrence joins the firm from Morgan Stanley, where he spent more than a decade leading coverage of many of the top industrial companies and has led several landmark transactions in the sector," Stein wrote in the memo. "He will partner closely with our Diversified Industries team and product bankers, and his client relationships are a great complement to our existing strong franchise in this sector."

Morgan Stanley spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Dealogic

It's been an active year in senior investment banking moves generally, and the industrials sector, despite being middling in terms of deal activity, has seen a number of moves. By one senior headhunter's count there have been more managing-director level moves among industrials bankers than any other sector so far this year.

Jefferies last month poached Peter Scheman from Goldman Sachs to be its new co-head of Americas industrials banking, while Goldman hired senior chemicals banker Ken Grahame away from Barclays. In March, David Hunt left UBS to join Greenhill as its co-head of industrial corporate advisory. And Wells Fargo last month hired Christopher Wofford as a managing director covering the transportation and logistics sector.

The hiring of Steyn bolsters JPMorgan's industrials practice, which has seen churn among its industrials ranks as well, according to people familiar with the matter.

Industrials isn't the only sector JPMorgan is beefing up. The addition of Steyn also comes on the heels of two senior oil and gas investment banking hires by JPMorgan in recent weeks: In late May, Jonathan Cox joined JPMorgan as global cohead of oil and gas investment banking and cohead of its Houston office, while Michael Johnson joined the firm as a vice chairman of investment banking. Each came over from Morgan Stanley as well.