Equities analysts in BT revolving door

Australianequities analysts Jack Chemello and Misha Collins have leftING Investment Managementafter only 12 and two and a half months respectively, to return to their previous employer, theBT Financial Group.

Previously a US financial services sector analyst at BT for five years before moving to ING as Australian equities portfolio manager, Chemello rejoins BT as Australian equities banking sector analyst.

Collins is revisiting familiar BT territory, returning as an equities analyst covering sectors including leisure, gaming and resources. Collins spent five years at BT before her brief move to ING.

These additions to the BT team have also been bolstered by the appointment of John Lake, formerly ofABN AMRO, as small cap analyst.

Replacing the pair at ING are Andrew Beirne, most recently director of Australian equity research sales atUBS Warburgin New York, and ex-Commonwealth Investment Managementanalyst Louise Mylott.

The moves are reminiscent of BT’s poaching of ING's small cap specialists, Ben Griffiths and Brian Eley, in 2001, which earned ING anAssirt‘Hold’ rating in the small caps sector.

When ING moved Michael Courtney and Jack Chemello into the small caps team in mid 2002, the research house stated it considered the team inexperienced and in turn downgraded its small cap products from four to three stars.