Barclays hires CFO of Berlin’s tech star to run Germany operations

Bloomberg

Barclays Plc has tapped Rocket Internet SE’s chief financial officer to lead its German operations, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The British bank will soon name Peter Kimpel as head of Germany as early as next week, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. He will fill a post that’s been vacant since Alexander Doll left at the end of last year.
Kimpel joined Rocket as CFO four years ago, according to the company’s website. He previously worked as a managing director for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Frankfurt and London, and spent more than two decades at the Wall Street firm. In October 2014, he oversaw Germany’s biggest IPO since 2007, when Berlin-based Rocket debuted on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
Officials at Rocket and Barclays declined to comment. Kimpel didn’t immediately respond to a text seeking comment.

Cash Pile
Rocket, which became famous for cloning businesses from Groupon Inc. to Airbnb Inc., was started by the brothers Marc, Oliver and Alexander Samwer, and is widely seen as one of Germany’s few successful internet companies.
Its shares have climbed steadily over the last year as some of its investments, such as food delivery company Delivery Hero SE and meal kit provider HelloFresh SE, begin to find success. Rocket still trades about 30 percent below its IPO price.
Kimpel, together with CEO Oliver Samwer, helped arrange deals such as Rocket’s share divestment of Lazada Group SA to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in 2016 and 2017.
His departure means Rocket will have to find a successor as it shifts from churning out tech copycats to investing in startups in Europe and the US.
The company had gross cash of $3 billion as of May 15, much of it amassed during Kimpel’s tenure.
In Germany, Barclays provides investment banking services from its country headquarters in Frankfurt but also operates a retail unit out of Hamburg that has 650 employees, according to its website.
Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley has made turning around the investment bank the cornerstone of his strategy, increasing spending and stepping up risk-taking.
Barclays was hired last month by the state of Lower Saxony to advise it on strengthening the capital base of ailing regional lender NordLB.