AIG Financial Products is getting ready to kick start its Asian cross-asset class business and is bringing aboard Eric Lim, Asian head of structured credit products marketing at HSBC in Hong Kong, for the initiative.
Aditya Rana, ceo in Hong Kong, said the firm plans to offer complex structuring across equity, rates, commodities, credit and funds as well as use its own balance sheet for transactions. Rana joined earlier this year from Morgan Stanley to spearhead the operation, which will encompass Greater China, Singapore, India and Korea (DW, 3/17). While the firm has a long-established structured products presence in Japan, further market liberalization in Asia and the growing potential of China are driving this new move.
The firm will open its doors to clients this month and five cross-asset class structurers and marketers are set to join. All five are still on gardening leave and their names could not be determined. Lim, also a veteran at Morgan Stanley prior to his stint at HSBC (DW, 8/12/05), is understood by market officials to be joining in the next few weeks, though Rana said it was too early to comment on specific staff. John Ryan, spokesman at HSBC, said Lim will be replaced, declining further comment.
Rana continued that a team of 10-12 structuring and marketing staff will be in place in Hong Kong by year-end. Trading will be facilitated out of other ports including Tokyo and London. "We'll be more versatile than the big firms," he added, noting that politics and barriers between asset class units at traditional houses make it more difficult for them to offer hybrid structures--where AIG will have a niche in the region.
