Credit Suisse on Thursday announced that Ronnie Behar had been promoted to co-head of mergers and acquisitions for Asia-Pacific. Behar, who is Singapore based, will take on his new role alongside Joseph (Joe) Gallagher who currently heads M&A on a sole basis for the region for the Swiss bank.
The announcement was made simultaneously with a Credit Suisse announcement that Greg Weinberger and Anthony Armstrong have been appointed co-heads of mergers and acquisitions for the Americas. The co-heads structure is one Credit Suisse has been using for M&A elsewhere in the world. M&A for Credit Suisse for emerging markets is also a joint remit discharged by Vikas Seth and Marcus Silberman.
One interesting fallout of Behar’s elevation is it enables Credit Suisse to geographically demarcate the region. With Gallagher based in Hong Kong, China and the rest of North Asia seems like his natural coverage region. Behar will continue to be based in Singapore and presumably will continue to cover Southeast Asia and India.
Behar joined Credit Suisse’s M&A group in 1994, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and has been heading M&A for Southeast Asia since 2005.
M&A revenues in Asia are considerably smaller than revenues from equities. This is partly because of the stage of development of many Asian markets and partly due to regulation. Estimates suggest that two-thirds of investment banking revenues are derived from equities and the balance is split between debt and M&A. However, in more developed markets such as the US, M&A accounts for almost half the investment banking wallet.
Credit Suisse was ranked third among all players in worldwide M&A by Dealogic in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Over the weekend, Dealogic released league tables for M&A for the first half of 2011 and Credit Suisse continues to be ranked number three on announced M&A deals.
