Barclays Picks JF Astier to Lead Global Financial-Sponsors Unit

Barclays Plc tapped Jean-Francois “JF” Astier to run the global financial-sponsors group as Wall Street prepares for a new wave of deals.

Astier will also join the company’s investment-banking management team, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. He was most recently a member of the global chairman’s group, which is comprised of the firm’s most senior dealmakers, and previously led the leveraged-finance team.

“JF is uniquely suited to lead this business,” Cathal Deasy and Taylor Wright, global co-heads of investment banking, said in the memo. “Our financial-sponsors business has long been one of the key ...