Davy’s capital markets head John Lydon quits for CRH

Davy’s head of capital markets, John Lydon, has quit the State’s largest stockbroking firm to join CRH as director of group development, putting him in charge of the building material giant’s multibillion euro deals war chest.

Staff at Davy were informed in recent days of the planned departure of Mr Lydon, an influential adviser to some of the largest Irish corporate groups, including CRH, on mergers and acquisitions and capital raising.

He will become a member of CRH’s executive committee on joining the group in the coming months, according to sources.

Mr Lydon will be succeeded as head of capital markets by Damian Roddy, who will also continue in his existing role, for the time being, as head of Davy’s institutional business overseeing equities research and trading.

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The departure comes at a time when global capital markets are in turmoil, and publicly-quoted Irish companies are generally holding back on fundraisings and deals that require fresh equity or debt. It also occurs three months after Bank of Ireland completed its takeover of Davy, comprising capital markets and wealth management businesses, in June for €427 million.

Mr Lydon, who joined Davy in late 2014, was a key member of the management team that was left to settle the ship when the firm was thrown into turmoil in March 2021 as a result of a Central Bank fine. That stemmed from a controversial bond transaction that took place just before he joined the business.

The scandal led to the departure of three long-standing senior figures at the firm, then chief executive Brian McKiernan, deputy chairman Kyran McLaughlin and head of bonds Barry Nangle, and triggered Davy putting itself up for sale.

The board’s move at the time to name then head of capital markets, Bernard Byrne, as group interim CEO saw Mr Lydon taking on much of his duties. The promotion was formalised when Mr Byrne was confirmed as group CEO earlier this year.

“John has made a major contribution to Davy and, in particular, the corporate group since he joined in 2014. He has lead Davy through many high-profile corporate transactions, including our own earlier this year,” Mr Byrne told staff in an internal email.

CRH declined to comment on the appointment.

Prior to joining Davy in December 2014, Mr Lydon was a top corporate finance executive with Deutsche Bank in Asia, and was among the senior advisers on Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba’s $25 billion initial public offering (IPO) that year. It is the second-largest IPO ever globally, marginally smaller than the 2019 flotation of Saudi Armaco, the oil behemoth.

CRH has committed the equivalent of $20.5 billion to acquisitions since CEO Albert Manifold took charge of the group in early 2014, including $2.8 billion committed so far this year, in spite of growing concerns about the state of the global economy.

It said less than two weeks ago, as it unveiled interim results, that its acquisition pipeline “remains strong” and its “significant balance sheet capacity provides flexibility” for deals.

The company has also raised over $12 billion from the sale of underperforming or unwanted businesses under Mr Manifold’s stewardship.