Leading stockbroker Charles Stanley has recruited six people from rival Gerrards to staff a new Birmingham office specialising in private clients.
The team is headed by Lawrence Fagg, a veteran at Gerrards and until recently a division director at its Birmingham office.
Other members of the new Charles Stanley team are: David Inions, Simon Sharp, Paul Smith, Martin Tatlow and Marcia McKenzie.
The move represents further stiff competition for existing firms in Birmingham's strong private client stockbroking.
Charles Stanley plans to open for business at One Victoria Square on 1 August.
The firm has 25 offices in England and Scotland but has so far been represented in the West Midlands only by a corporate brokerage at Henley-in-Arden.
The Birmingham office will initially be headed by Mr Inions, who retired from Gerrards last December, and Ms McKenzie.
They will be joined by their former Gerrards colleagues as and when their respective periods of notice end.
The six have worked for some of the best known names in the Birmingham stockbroking world, including Albert E Sharp, Greig Middleton and Margetts & Addenbrooke, all of which came under the Gerrard umbrella when it acquired the Old Mutual business.
Peter Hurst, finance director of Charles Stanley, said of the move into Birmingham: "This is an excellent opportunity for us to develop our business in the Midlands with the added advantage that the individuals who have decided to join us are already well known and well respected in the region having lived and worked in the West Midlands almost all their lives."
