ConSors recently became the first European online brokerage to open an investment bank.
By David Schutt
December 2000
Institutional Investor Magazine
Running the operation is Alfred Möckel, one of the Neuer Markt’s best-connected bankers. Five years ago Möckel, who had worked at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley in Frankfurt, was appointed head of the money-losing equity market operations of Frankfurt-based BHF-Bank. He turned the division into the third-largest underwriter of Neuer Markt issues and a profit powerhouse for BHF. In the process, he became one of the youngest men to serve on the board of a German bank, before being poached by ConSors in September.
Möckel, 42, aims to capture 10 percent of the Neuer Markt’s initial public offering volume by 2002. The timing may strike many as odd. The tech- and Internet-oriented exchange has been the worst-performing growth market in Europe since April, and some of its biggest companies have been muttering about moving their listings to the Deutsche Börse.
“We think the underlying long-term trend on the Neuer Markt is unchanged,” Möckel says. “Although we expect to see the annual number of IPO issues slow from about 200 this year to about 150 annually for the next five years, the equity revolution in Germany, encompassing everything from venture capital funds to new retail investors, can’t be easily reversed.”
The new division, ConSors Capital Bank, is meant to give ConSors’ main online brokerage business an edge over the competition. Although ConSors is the leading online brokerage in Germany, it is often “last in line” for hot IPOs, says Möckel. “To get a proper allocation, you’ve got to share in the underwriting risk,” he says. Möckel and 75 employees, all of whom will be working at the investment bank by April, will share a 25 percent stake in the operation, which expects to win its first mandates sometime after Christmas.
