Fiba Nordic founder leaves the board

Erik Langaker, one of the founders of Fiba Nordic, the broking firm linked with disgraced Morgan Grenfell fund manager Peter Young, is leaving the firm's board and stepping down as head of corporate finance, writes Jill Treanor.

His departure came as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell prepared to announce the departure today of four senior executives from its asset management arm.

Stephen Chance, managing director of Fiba Nordic, said Mr Langaker would continue to work with the firm as a consultant but said Fiba was scaling back its corporate finance activities in the UK and will concentrate on stock broking.

Fiba arranged a share placing for Solv-Ex, a US oil exploration firm which was being investigated by the US authorities. When the Securities and Futures Authority learnt of this it launched an informal inquiry which eventually led to Morgan Grenfell unravelling a maze of Luxembourg holding companies set up by Mr Young to hide the extent of his investments in high technology firms.

The chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Asset Management, Keith Percy, is expected to be replaced by Robert Smith. Glyn Owen, chief investment officer for Europe, Graham Kane, chief executive of Morgan Grenfell Unit Trusts, and Michael Wheatley, compliance director, are also expected to stand down.