Neeraj Hora, the Hong Kong-based joint global head of equity-linked solutions at Nomura, has resigned from the firm after nearly three years in Asia.
His intention, according to a source, is to take a break from the industry and he doesn’t currently have another job lined up. In an internal announcement, Nomura said he will remain available to assist with client transitions during the next few months.
Before moving to the region, Hora worked with Lehman Brothers in the US for about five years and before that he was with J.P. Morgan in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He joined Nomura to help build its equity-linked and corporate equity derivatives businesses, which are both included under equity-linked solutions, and has achieved “a series of franchise successes in these areas”, the firm said.
Looking at the equity-linked business, which is the more publicly visible of the two, Nomura has become a relatively active arranger of Asian convertible bonds in the past couple of years and has brought a number of interesting transactions to the market. This year it acted as a joint bookrunner together with Goldman Sachs on a $903 million dual-currency CB for Lotte Shopping, which ranks as the largest international CB in Asia ex-Japan in 2011. It also worked with Morgan Stanley on a $500 million New Taiwan dollar-linked CB for United Microelectronics Corp (UMC).
Last year Nomura was one of three bookrunners on China Unicom’s $1.8 billion CB, which FinanceAsia awarded as the Best Equity-Linked Deal in 2010. The Japanese bank is ranked sixth for equity-linked issuance in Asia ex-Japan this year, according to Dealogic.
And a source noted that Nomura has also had a very good year in corporate equity derivatives. The current strength of the equity solutions business, which is viewed as one of the firm’s top five businesses, makes this a good time for Hora to take a break and for someone else to take the helm. According to people at the bank, Hora originally came to Asia with the intention of staying for a couple of years, so the fact that he is leaving after close to three years shouldn’t come as a surprise.
However, sources say he is expected to remain in the region at least until the end of the current school year in June.
Nomura doesn’t plan to hire a replacement for Hora, but will make Ken Brown the sole global head of equity-linked solutions. London-based Brown is currently joint head of equity-linked solutions together with Hora, as well as global head of ECM.
Hora’s equity-linked solutions team in Asia will be combined with the equity capital markets group under the leadership of current ECM head Mark Williams. Williams, who joined Nomura from UBS in August last year, will continue to report to Brown and to Patrick Schmitz-Morkramer, the head of investment banking for Asia ex-Japan.
Nomura also recently hired Tak Loon Chai from Deutsche Bank to head up its CB franchise in Asia — a remit that was previously handled by Hora. Before he joined Nomura in October, Tak spent about 10 years with Deutsche Bank, mostly in London. He transferred to Hong Kong early last year to take up the role as head of Asia-Pacific equity-linked capital markets, replacing Pierre-Alexis Renaudin who returned to London.
At Nomura, Tak has the title of executive director within equity-linked solutions and he reports to Williams.
Before he joined Nomura in Asia, Hora was based in San Francisco where he ran Lehman Brothers’ West Coast CB and equity derivatives business.
