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Bear Stearns isn’t the only one at it: Macquarie, ING and Jefferies are also said to be building their European equities businesses.

Undeterred by its losses in fixed income, Bear Stearns is going ahead with plans to build up in Europe – in equities at least.

Financial News reports that the US bank is launching a “renewed push” into European equity capital markets after two previous attempts failed. It’s already hired a head of equity-linked capital markets, a head of equity flow derivative sales and a VP in the equity transactions group, and is said to be on the lookout for a head of European ECM, plus, we suspect, several juniors.

And one headhunter says Macquarie, ING and Jefferies are all adding staff in European equities sales and trading.

Others appear less confident of equities’ resilience. Zaheer Ibrahim at recruiter Kennedy Associates says banks are “skimming the fat” in equities as well as derivatives, but that many are interested in upgrading equities teams in the first quarter of next year.

David Carrier, a director at headhunter Kinsey Allen, predicts the ECM hiring focus for 2008 will be on emerging markets, particularly Russia, CEE states and the Middle East: “The IPO pipleline in the Western European markets, where private equity lead deals are experiencing a slowdown, is less clear. Equity-linked issuance activity is likely to re-emerge in the first half of 2008.”

London IPOs such as software group SmartStream Technologies and restaurant chain Wagamama have been pulled in the past few months over concerns about the weak market for new listings.