Tullett Liberty's chief is sacked

BROKER Collins Stewart Tullett has sacked veteran City trader Bruce Collins as chief executive of Tullett Liberty, the money broker business Collins Stewart bought last year.

Collins' abrupt departure is believed to be part of an attempt to improve margins at Tullett's currency and bond trading business, currently lagging at around 10%, and compete better with market leader Icap.

Collins, 51, has left the firm with a £625,000 pay-off, equivalent to one year's salary. Eyebrows were raised when he joined the Collins Stewart main board last year on a salary up to six times larger than other directors.

Collins Stewart chief executive Terry Smith has replaced Collins with American Lou Scotto, Tullett's chief operating based in New York, who joined the firm through Tullett & Tokyo's earlier acquisition of Liberty, an aggressive American bond dealer.

Collins and Scotto are understood to have made £700,000 each when Collins Stewart took over Tullett & Tokyo Liberty in January last year.

Collins had a 24-year career with Tullett, helping found and build up a multi-million pound interest rate derivatives and equity derivatives business with stints in London, Bahrain and Tokyo.

Tullett contributed £346m of Collins Stewart's £473.9m group turnover last year but Smith wants Scotto to make even more and at better margins.