JPMorgan next month is bringing aboard Han Joon Kim, v.p. in fixed income covering Korean corporates at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, in a similar role for its rates desk in Seoul. "We didn't think our size was big enough to fully tap the market--we wanted to hire a senior guy," said M.H. Kim, treasurer in Seoul, to whom Han Joon Kim will report. Officials familiar with the situation said Kim wanted to relocate to Seoul for family reasons.
At Goldman Han Joon Kim reported to Wassim Younan, managing director and head of fixed income, currencies and commodities in Hong Kong. Younan referred calls to Mei Zhang, spokeswoman, who declined comment. In recent months Goldman also lost another Korean market specialist, Alex Choi, executive director in Hong Kong, who joined Samsung Securities (DW, 10/13).
As the Korean derivatives market continues to mature and expand, several houses have been nabbing talent from rival firms as they look to bulk up coverage, including JPMorgan (DW, 6/23), Lehman Brothers (DW, 1/19) and BNP Paribas (DW, 1/12).
