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Cnooc’s elephant-sized acquisition of Nexen in July put the resources sector firmly on everyone’s radar and dominated headlines, but other resources deals have also been bubbling across the region.
During the first three quarters of this year, Chinese companies announced nearly $30 billion of overseas mergers and acquisitions deals in the oil-and-gas and mining sectors, according to Dealogic. That’s perhaps no surprise — just as it isn’t a shock that such deals also top the charts for Australia’s inbound M&A.
Total outbound M&A from Indonesia stands at $1.7 billion so far this year — of that, oil, gas and mining M&A deals account for a whopping 94%. But here might be a surprise: oil, gas and mining deals also amount to $1.8 billion worth of outbound M&A from India — a market that has generated $5.6 billion of activity so far this year.
In other words, no matter where you look in the region, resources come into play in a big way.
No wonder then that banks are beefing up their resources staffing. Last week, HSBC announced five new senior appointments in the resources and energy group in Asia-Pacific.
Robert McGregor has joined the Asia-Pacific team as head of power and utilities for the region, excluding Greater China. He is based in Hong Kong. McGregor was most recently a partner with Actis in Singapore, where he was responsible for the global fundraising for the firm’s energy infrastructure fund and was previously head of Asian Infrastructure. Before joining Actis, he was head of Asian power and utilities at UBS from 2005 to 2008.
Jorge Martinez has joined the bank as head of oil and gas for Asia-Pacific. Martinez was previously head of oil, gas and chemicals for Asia at UBS in Hong Kong. Before that, he was with Lehman Brothers, where he was head of natural resources for Asia, based in Hong Kong. Martinez was previously a member of Lehman’s natural resources group, based in New York.
Bardin Davis has joined HSBC as head of metals and mining for Asia-Pacific. He also is based in Hong Kong. Davis was previously at Macquarie Capital, where he held a similar role and oversaw the origination and execution of metals and mining investment banking transactions. Before that, Davis was with ABN Amro in Australia and Hong Kong after having worked in the industry in corporate development roles with North Limited.
Davis Hu has joined HSBC as a director to cover the oil and gas and as well as metals and mining sub-sectors in greater China, and will work closely with Davis and Martinez. Hu has extensive origination and execution experience in M&A and equity in these areas. He was most recently with UBS and previously worked for Credit Suisse and Citi.
Roshan Menon has joined HSBC as a director to lead resources and energy group coverage in Australia. He is based in Sydney. Menon was most recently head of oil and gas, Australia, for Royal Bank of Scotland. Before that, he was at Citi in a senior role in the energy and power group.
