Rob Jesudason, the head of Credit Suisse’s financial institutions group (FIG) in Asia-Pacific, has been appointed head of a new global emerging markets team within FIG, according to an internal announcement.
His current job will be taken over by Simon Yuan and Nicolo Salsano, who will become co-heads of Asia-Pacific FIG. Yuan is currently head of FIG for Greater China, while Salsano is a member of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) FIG team in London.
The new global emerging markets team will span the existing FIG coverage teams in Asia-Pacific, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America and will allow the bank to put additional focus on a set of regions that are growing in importance and are already home to about half of the world’s top-40 financial institutions, including five of the top-10 banks. According to the announcement, it will also allow Credit Suisse to deliver “a more unified service” to its sovereign wealth fund clients in Asia-Pacific and in the Middle East and North Africa when it comes to the financial institutions sector.
Jesudason joined Credit Suisse in his present role in November 2007 from J.P. Morgan. At the US bank he was a managing director focusing on private equity investments into financial institutions within the special situations group in Asia. Before that he was global head of corporate development at Barclays in London.
He will continue to be based in Hong Kong in his new role, which is effective immediately.
Yuan has been with Credit Suisse since June 2009 when he joined from Merrill Lynch to become co-head of FIG for Greater China. Together with the China team he has built a strong China FIG franchise, which was involved in five of the seven biggest fund raisings by Chinese banks last year, including four rights issues raising a total of $29.8 billion and a $3.7 billion A-share convertible bond for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
Credit Suisse hasn’t yet appointed a new head of FIG for Greater China.
Salsano, who will relocate to Hong Kong for his new job, joined Credit Suisse in 2000 and has worked with the Emea FIG group since 2004. He has advised on some key M&A and financing transactions in Europe, including Commerzbank’s €4.7 billion ($6.7 billion) acquisition of Dresdner Bank and National Bank of Greece’s $5.5 billion acquisition and financing of Finansbank in Turkey.
According to the internal announcement, Credit Suisse ranked third in terms of its share of the Asia-Pacific FIG wallet last year with a 7.5% market share, which was a significant improvement from its ninth position in 2007.
It is also currently working on some of the largest FIG transaction in the region. It is advising Lone Star on the $4.1 billion sale of its stake in Korea Exchange Bank to Hana Bank, and Malaysia’s fifth largest bank, RHB Capital, on its potential sale, which is expected to be worth about $7.5 billion.
It is also mandated for the Hong Kong IPOs of China Guangfa Bank (previously known as Guangdong Development Bank) and Haitong Securities, which are expected to raise more than $5 billion and about $1.5 billion respectively later this year.
