UBS hires Solon Kentas to lead U.S. consumer and retail M&A

(Reuters) - UBS Group AG has appointed Solon Kentas, previously a managing director at Deutsche Bank AG, to lead the Swiss bank's U.S. consumer and retail dealmaking efforts, UBS announced internally in a memo on Tuesday.

Kentas, who will be based in New York, will be a managing director within the mergers and acquisitions team covering the consumer products and retail sectors starting next month, according to the memo sent by UBS co-heads of M&A for the Americas Larry Grafstein and Marc-Anthony Hourihan.

A UBS spokeswoman confirmed the contents of the memo.

Kentas takes over from Lowell Strug, who left UBS to join Barclays Plc along with partners Brett Pickett and Peter Kuhn in April.

Kentas' move comes as Germany's largest lender retrenches around 10 percent of its U.S. workforce and scraps its strategy of being a global investment bank as part of a plan to return to profitability under new Chief Executive Christian Sewing.

Kentas has nearly two decades of M&A experience. Beyond consumer and retail, Kentas has advised on deals in business services and distribution industries, the memo said.

Prior to Deutsche Bank, Kentas was the head of North America M&A at HSBC Holdings Plc and, before that, a managing director at Bank of America Co, where he spent the majority of his banking career.

(Reporting by Harry Brumpton in New York; Editing by Susan Thomas)

By Harry Brumpton