Jiro Seguchi is poised to become Bank of America Merrill Lynch's sole head of global and corporate investment banking for Asia-Pacific with the expected return to London of current co-head Jayanti Bajpai, according to an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Seguchi, who has been with the bank for 14 years, will relocate from Japan to Hong Kong once his shift to sole head is completed in early 2014. He will remain the bank's country executive for Japan until a successor is found.
His recent deals include Japan Tobacco’s $7.8bn public offering, Japan Airlines’ $8.5 billion IPO and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s $5.7 billion acquisition of Bank of Ayudhya in July.
Seguchi will continue to report to Christian Meissner, BofA Merrill's head of Global Corporate and Investment Banking, and to Matthew Koder, its Asia-Pacific president.
The US bank's management tweak in Asia comes as investment banking in the region experiences a challenging year.
Asia-Pacific IPO volume for the first nine months of 2013 stood at $31.5 billion, the lowest volume since the same period in 2008, according to Dealogic data. Equity capital market volume for Asia ex-Japan in the first nine months of 2013 fell 11% from the same period last year, according to Dealogic data. Meanwhile, third-quarter volume was $28.7bn, the lowest quarterly volume since the first quarter of 2009.
Meanwhile, debt capital market volume dropped 12% in the first nine months of 2013 for Asia ex-Japan, and Q3 volume dropped 35% year-on-year, the lowest quarterly total since the third quarter of 2011.
Bajpai moves from Hong Kong to London to become vice-chairman of global corporate and investment banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and has been with the bank for 26 years. In that time he has worked for the bank in various locations including New York, London, Singapore and Hong Kong.
BofA Merrill also named Kevin Skelton as chief executive and country head for Australia, replacing acting country head James Barrett-Lennard, according to an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Skelton, who has been with the bank for 25 years, becomes a member of the bank’s executive committee for the region and will also report to Koder.
