Ex-UK Chancellor Javid to Join Centricus Asset Management

Sajid Javid, the UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to join London-based Centricus Asset Management Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said, joining a long list of politicians who’ve moved into financial services after leaving office.

(Bloomberg) — Sajid Javid, the UK’s former Chancellor of the Exchequer, is set to join London-based Centricus Asset Management Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said, joining a long list of politicians who’ve moved into financial services after leaving office. 

Javid plans to join the $40 billion investment firm as a senior adviser, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Discussions over the terms of his appointment are ongoing, they said. A representative for Centricus declined to comment. Javid couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Javid was chancellor for only a short time in 2019 and 2020 before dramatically leaving the role after a row with then Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Once considered among the Conservative Party’s brightest prospects, he has previously served as the UK’s home secretary, and also health secretary during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In December, he announced his decision not to stand as a member of Parliament at the next general election. Joining Centricus will mark a return to the financial services industry for Javid, who earlier in his career was a banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG.

It is not unusual for MPs to take up roles in the high-paying world of finance after leaving Westminster, with investment banks, asset managers and private equity firms keen to tap their political expertise and networks. 

George Osborne, another former chancellor, was employed by investment giant BlackRock Inc. in the years after he left politics and now works at mergers and acquisitions boutique Robey Warshaw LLP. Ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair, meanwhile, once served as a senior adviser to JPMorgan’s management team.

Other prominent public sector figures to make the move include former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, who is now chair of Canadian infrastructure specialists Brookfield Asset Management.

Centricus was started in 2016 by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Dalinc Ariburnu and Deutsche Bank investment banker Nizar Al-Bassam. The firm operates at the intersection of modern finance, technology and luxury and since its inception has advised SoftBank Group Corp. on the creation of its $100 billion Vision Fund, acquired a luxury Italian hotel frequented by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio and been linked to a multibillion-dollar financing package for European football. 

It’s also been involved in bids for English football club Chelsea FC and the US operations of TikTok, the social media firm owned by China’s ByteDance.

In 2020, Garth Ritchie, the former head of Deutsche Bank’s corporate and investment bank, joined Centricus to help expand its capital markets and advisory business.

(Adds detail on Centricus deals in penultimate paragraph.)

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