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Former Abbey man Dummett resurfaces at Merrill Lynch placement team

Christian Dummett, the former head of Abbey National's abandoned private equity programme, has resurfaced at Merrill Lynch to work as part of the bank's buy-out fund placement team.

He will be filling part of the gap left by the nine-man exodus earlier this year.

Kevin Albert, global head of Merrill's fundraising group, said Dummett's experience as an institutional investor would be invaluable in the placement business. ‘As a former investor in private equity, he can see the fundraising process from both sides,' he told Bloomberg.

Dummett made $2.5bn of private equity investments for Abbey in more than 70 funds. The portfolio's performance, however, was blamed for contributing to the bank's first ever loss in 2002 and the private equity programme was abruptly closed down. The bank is in the process of exploring ways to unwind the investments.

Merrill's team is currently working with European buy-out firm Doughty Hanson to raise its latest E3bn fund, one of a handful of mega-funds in the market.

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