Barclays expands Asia equities research

Barclays Capital continues to build its equities business in the region, adding two new sectors to its Asia ex-Japan research offering and a new head of product management.

Ephrem Ravi is joining the bank from Morgan Stanley in London to initiate metals and mining research, and Scott Darling arrives from Nomura in Dubai to start research coverage of the oil and gas industry. In addition, Marcus Gunn is coming on board as Asia ex-Japan head of product management, also from Morgan Stanley, where he held a similar role. All three will be based in Hong Kong.

Ravi and Darling will have responsibility for establishing and leading regional research teams in their respective sectors, and will report to Stephen O’Sullivan, head of Asia ex-Japan equity research.

At Morgan Stanley, Ravi was also head of metals and mining equity research in London. He previously worked at Credit Suisse as a mining analyst.

While at Nomura, Darling established the bank’s equity research platform in the Middle East and led coverage of Middle East oil and gas, petrochemicals and power, and transportation. Before that, he worked in Lehman Brothers’ European oils equity research team. Previously, he worked for ExxonMobil for six years in a variety of roles in sales, supply and transportation within ExxonMobil’s chemicals and gas marketing businesses.

Gunn, who will also report to O’Sullivan, worked in equity sales for some 16 years at Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Cazenove.

“These appointments are a demonstration of our commitment to build a client-focused Asia-Pacific equities research platform,” said O’Sullivan. “[Ravi, Darling and Gunn’s] arrival will broaden our capabilities in Asia ex-Japan equity research to 18 sectors in five countries, starting from scratch only 19 months ago.”

The hires come on the heels of a string of equities hires from Deutsche Bank in Korea during the summer. Barclays told FinanceAsia last year that it was on a hiring drive in Asia as it aims to increase its revenues in the region by up to three times the 2010 levels by 2012. The main focus is to expand the bank’s equities business to complement an already strong presence in fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange. Its major regional equity hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo are well-established, and this year it has opened equities operations in Mumbai and Taipei.