Agency broker Instinet is believed to have identified a replacement for Europe CEO Richard Balarkas, whose exit was revealed in an internal memo circulated yesterday.
Balarkas joined Instinet Europe in April 2008, reporting to Fumiki Kondo, co-CEO of Instinet, and Tony Mackay, formerly CEO of Instinet Europe, who retained his role as chairman of the European arm while also running Chi-X Europe, the multilateral trading facility owned by Instinet Europe that began trading in April 2007.
Prior to joining the agency brokerage, Balarkas spent almost 15 years at Credit Suisse, latterly as global head of sales for its Advanced Execution Services division.
He is expected to step down from Instinet Europe in the coming months, according to sources close to the situation.
Instinet was bought by Japanese investment bank Nomura for US$1.2 billion in 2006 from private equity house Silver Lake, which had itself bought the broker for just US$208 million the year before.