(Bloomberg) -- Jefferies Financial Group Inc. has hired Lars Aagaard from Barclays Plc as Asia head of financial sponsors, according to people familiar with the matter, as it further expands its global investment banking team.

Aagaard will start in the new role later this year and remain in Hong Kong, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. 

Representatives for Jefferies and Barclays declined to comment.

Aagaard was head of mergers and acquisitions and financial sponsors in Asia Pacific for Barclays. He worked at the bank for 14 years, initially in Sydney and then Hong Kong, his LinkedIn profile shows. He was also at Morgan Stanley for a decade. 

Jefferies Chief Executive Officer Richard Handler has been aggressively hiring to compete with bigger Wall Street banks. Jefferies has been expanding in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and India, with some senior rainmakers joining from Credit Suisse, including Rizal Gozali and Rehan Anwer. Christopher Laskowski was also brought in from Citigroup Inc. as head of Asia investment banking in 2021.

Jefferies has hired investment bankers from Barclays in the US too, including John Miller and Chad Parker last year. In Europe, it poached bankers including Birger Berendes from Bank of America Corp. and Michael Borch from Citi.

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