BoA-Merrill nabs CS syndicate bankers amid reshuffle
Devesh Ashra and Hital Desai, fixed income syndicate director and fixed income vice president at Credit Suisse have left the bank to join Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoA-Merrill). Ashra joins as head of Asia DCM syndicate and Desai will work on his team, according to an internal memo seen by Asiamoney PLUS.
The note also announced that Ashish Malhotra has been named head of Asia DCM, responsible both for investment grade and high yield origination across the region.
He was previously head of Asia DCM syndicate and has worked for BoA-Merrill since 2005, according to the note, written by Jason Cox and James Fleming, co-heads of Asia Pacific global capital markets.
In addition, Siong Ooi has been appointed head of Asia Pacific leveraged finance and loans and Ranobir Mukherji has been named vice chairman of Asia DCM. Malhotra, Ashra, Desai, Ooi and Mukherji will all report to Cox and Fleming.
HSBC names Apac head of international
Jayant Rikhye is head of international for Asia Pacific at HSBC, effective from March 18. He takes over from Guy Harvey-Samuel who has been named CEO for HSBC Singapore. Rikhye is currently head of strategy and planning for Asia Pacific.
In his new role, he will oversee 12 markets in Asia: Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mauritius, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
He will also continue in his position as head of strategy and planning for the region until a successor is appointed. He joined HSBC Group in 1989 in India.
Kuwahara replaces Hatt as Deutsche Japan head
Makoto Kuwahara will replace David Hatt as group chief country officer for Japan at Deutsche Bank, effective April 1. He will also take over as president of Deutsche Securities. Hatt headed up the bank’s operations in Japan for six years and is now retiring from the bank.
Kuwahara joined the Deutsche Bank Group in 1997 and has held various senior management positions in global markets in Japan including global rates, global credit, global risk syndicate and distressed products, as well as emerging markets. He was named head of global markets in 2010.
Goldman’s Barg heads to New York
Steven Barg is to become head of M&A capital markets for Goldman Sachs in New York, just eight months after he took up the position as co-head of investment banking for Southeast Asia.
He will relocate from Singapore to New York in April and work alongside the investment banking, M&A and ECM teams, according to an internal memo seen by Asiamoney PLUS.
Before moving to Singapore last year, he was co-head of Asia ex-Japan ECM based in Hong Kong. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2010 from UBS, where he was head of Asian global capital markets for two years, and head of ECM at UBS between 2006 and 2008.
Before this he was a managing director in ECM at UBS in New York, and at Credit Suisse in both New York and London. Barg’s co-head of investment banking for Southeast Asia Hsin Yue Yong will take over as sole head.
Head of Korea DCM leaves MS
Andrew Paik, managing director and head of DCM at Morgan Stanley will leave the bank, effective at the end of March.
This will leave only one junior DCM banker on the ground in Korea, confirmed a Hong Kong-based spokesperson for the bank, and Morgan Stanley will run its DCM operations from Hong Kong.
CIMB’s Agarwal to head Singapore IB
CIMB has moved to bolster its Singapore office, appointing Manoj Agarwal as head of investment banking Singapore and head of the sectors team.
Agarwal, who was previous co-head of equity markets Asia Pacific alongside Patrick Tan, will relocate from Hong Kong to Singapore in the next few months.
Matthew Kirkby, Hong Kong CEO and co-head of investment banking will take on Agarwal’s ECM responsibilities.
Agarwal was part of the team that joined CIMB after the Malaysian bank bought the Asia Pacific cash equities and investment banking business of RBS in a $140m deal agreed last April. He held a number of positions at RBS including head of financial sponsors M&A and global head of corporate finance for India. He joined RBS when the UK bank acquired ABN Amro as part of a consortium in 2007.
Nomura’s Morris joins StanChart
Standard Chartered has hired the former head of M&A for Southeast Asia at Nomura, according to Reuters. Jason Morris will join its regional team as a managing director. A spokesperson from Standard Chartered declined to comment on the move.
ADB president Kuroda steps down
The president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Haruhiko Kuroda has left the supranational in order to take over as the governor of the Bank of Japan (BoJ).
He is the longest serving president to date and leaves after eight years at the ADB, after overseeing the bank’s operations triple from US$7.4 billion in 2005 to US$21.7 billion in 2012. The ADB has not yet named a replacement.
Pollock to head North Asia PB at ABN Amro
Ian Pollock will take over as head of private banking for North Asia at ABN Amro from May 13 this year. He will be based in Hong Kong, where he has been based for most of his 30-year career. He moves to the role from VP Bank, where he was CEO.
Before this he worked in senior regional management positions at Julius Baer, HSBC Private Bank and Republic National Bank of New York. At ABN Amro, he takes over from Arjan de Boer, who will take on a new senior role with the ABN Amro global team.
BlackRock names head of consultant relations
Patrick O’Donnell has taken over as head of consultant relations for Asia ex-Japan at BlackRock. The role is newly created and O’Donnell will be based in Hong Kong.
He joins from BNP Paribas Investment Partners (BNPP IP) where he was most recently head of consultant relations for Asia Pacific. Before this he was chief operating officer for BNPP IP’s global business development arm.
Korea head of institutional sales at PineBridge
Kyeung-Won Min has been appointed representative director and head of institutional sales for PineBridge in South Korea, effective immediately. Min will be based in Seoul.
He has over 20 years experience in sales and marketing in the financial services industry. Before working for PineBridge he worked for KBC Financial Products Hong Kong, Nomura Securities in Seoul and UBS Securities in Seoul.
HSBC PB appoints HK business head
HSBC has appointed Teddy Kwong as Hong Kong business head for global private banking. He has worked for the bank for over 25 years, predominantly in commercial banking.
He was most recently CEO of Macau. He will be based in Hong Kong and report to Bernard Rennell, North Asia CEO for global private banking and global head of private wealth solutions.
MacAulay joins Clifford Chance as HK partner
Alastair MacAulay will join Clifford Chance’s Hong Kong office as a partner to focus on maritime and offshore finance, particularly in the transportation and energy sectors.