Sal Oppenheim (Austria) is to bid farewell to its head of equity research, Peter Szopo, Borse Express reports - news which directly follows Deutsche Bank signing a deal to acquire the Luxembourg-based wealth management firm.

According to the publication Mr Szopo will become head of research at an unnamed Russian financial firm based in Moscow.

Deutsche Bank ended weeks of speculation over Sal Oppenheim’s fate earlier this week by agreeing a €1 billion ($1.48 billion) acquisition as part of moves by the German banking giant to strengthen its position among high net worth private clients, particularly in its domestic market.

In purchasing the group holding company Deutsche will acquire the firm’s German subsidiaries Sal Oppenheim jr & Cie and BHF Bank. The private equity fund of funds business managed in the separate holding Sal Oppenheim Private Equity Partners will also transfer to Deutsche Bank. Additionally, Deutsche will acquire BHF Asset Servicing, which it intends to resell to allow Sal Oppenheim to focus on its core asset and wealth management business.

Deutsche has also said it will continue with ongoing talks on the sale of Sal Oppenheim’s investment banking arm, for which Australian banking group Macquarie is thought to be a likely buyer.

Decisions concerning new management structures and governance will be announced in due course, Deutsche has said, and so it may be expected that staff shake-ups may follow in the wake of the acquisition deal, which is due to close in the first quarter of 2010.