Asian Investment Banks Spark Talent War as Senior Bankers Jump Ship

Bloomberg quoted sources as saying that as the Asia-Pacific region’s deal activity recovers and the job market heats up again, a new round of talent competition among major global investment banks is underway. Senior Asian investment bankers are accelerating their moves to competitors, affecting key business coverage areas (ranging from real estate to equity capital markets).

Sources revealed that:

JPMorgan has hired about a dozen senior investment bankers in Asia over the past six months.

Citigroup has been recruiting key talent for its Asian investment banking business since August last year, including appointing Kaustubh Kulkarni as Co-Head of Investment Banking, hiring Deepak Dangayach from Deutsche Bank as Co-Head of Debt Capital Markets, and recruiting Vikram Chavali from Goldman Sachs as Head of Financial Institutions Clients.

Among them:

• Indran Thana, Head of Real Estate, Hotels, and Leisure at UBS Asia, joined Citigroup to fill the vacancy left by Jonathan Quek (who has joined Jefferies);
• Fergus Horrobin, a resident investment banker at UBS Hong Kong, will join JPMorgan;
• Min Zhao, Managing Director at Bank of America, will join Jefferies;
• Aaron Zhang, a banker at Citigroup, will jump to Morgan Stanley;
• Warren Wu, Head of TMT (Technology, Media, and Telecom) for Southeast Asia and India at UBS, has also left;
• Karen Chen, Head of Consumer and Retail in China at JPMorgan, recently resigned to join a competitor.