Daiwa Capital Markets announced yesterday that it has made six senior hires for its Asia ex-Japan equity research division. They are all based in Hong Kong and will report to Nagahisa Miyabe, regional head of Asia-Pacific research.
Mingchun Sun joins as a managing director and head of China research and chief Greater China economist. He is moving over from Nomura in Hong Kong where he was head of China equity research and chief China economist. Prior to that, he was an economist with China’s state administration of foreign exchange, or Safe. Sun correctly predicted the slowdown of the China economy in 2008 and its subsequent rebound in 2009.
Justin Lau, who is managing director, comes on board as head of the Asia-Pacific custom products group. He joins from Nomura in Hong Kong where he was also head of the Asia-Pacific custom products group. He was at Lehman Brothers from 2005, providing bespoke research for clients around the region, and moved to Nomura following the Japanese bank's acquisition of Lehman Brothers’ Asian operations in 2008.
Mark Chang joins as senior vice-president and regional head of small- and mid-cap research. He joins from BNP Paribas where he was regional head of small caps. Prior to that, he was head of regional mid- and small-cap research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Eric Chen joins as senior vice-president and co-head of regional technology from BNP Paribas, where he was head of semiconductor research for Greater China. Grace Wu joins as senior vice-president and head of Hong Kong/China banking. She is moving from Nomura where she was a banking analyst for Hong Kong and Taiwan. Danny Bao also joins as a senior vice-president and head of Hong Kong/China property. He is moving from Deutsche Bank where he was head of Hong Kong/China property research.
“The expanded team now provides coverage of over 400 stocks in the Asia ex-Japan region, and we aim to further broaden the coverage to over 700 with additional hires,” said Miyabe.
Since the beginning of 2010, Daiwa has increased the headcount of its Asian ex-Japan research team by 70%, according to the press release. The firm has also made a number of senior hires in equity sales and trading, including: Ester Li as regional head of Asian equity sales; Ricky Lo and May Tsang as head and deputy head of Hong Kong/China sales trading; Ravi Narain as a senior generalist salesman; Meurig Williams as regional head of equity for Europe and the Middle East; Woon Lim as head of Asian equity sales in New York; and Jean Ang as head of Asian equity sales in Singapore.
