JPMorgan has launched an Asia hedge fund sales operation under David Barrosse, co-head of Asian derivatives at JPMorgan in London, who joined from Petra Capital in January. "We're offering the full sweep of derivatives, including futures, options, swaps and structured products but the primary importance is offering ideas," said Barrosse. He continued that the group is concentrating its efforts on a handful of global hedge funds and will provide derivatives execution as well as trade ideas for Asian investments. The group will focus on equity products but will also offer products such as asset swaps and credit derivatives, which would be used for convertible-bond arbitrages.
As part of the effortr JPMorgan hired John Moore, director of global equity linked products at Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, as a senior derivatives marketer in the Asia equity derivatives group, last week. "There will be a significant amount of hires in Asia," said Barrosse, declining to elaborate. Moore, who reports to Barrosse, did not return calls. At Merrill, Moore reported to Brent Clapacs, managing director and head of global equity markets in Hong Kong. Clapacs declined comment.
