Equity syndicate banker Andrew Debnam leaves Macquarie

Andrew Debnam has left Macquarie‘s Asia equity syndicate desk as part of a restructuring exercise, according to sources. To fill the gap, the Australian bank has brought in former sales trader Yat Quan Tan, who has a long background with the firm but has been on sabbatical leave during the past year.

Debnam joined Macquarie’s syndicate desk in Hong Kong in July 2008, initially working under syndicate head Angus Firth and from early 2010, when Firth returned to Australia, under current head Jeremy Wernert.

After Wernert was appointed head of Asia equity capital markets in May last year in addition to his syndicate role, Debnam has effectively been leading the day-to-day work on the syndicate desk. He left the bank early last week, the sources said.

Debnam, who was an associate director, moved to Macquarie after seven years with J.P. Morgan. The first few years with the US bank he worked in ECM origination in London, and then in January 2007 he transferred to Asia to take up a job on the equity syndicate desk.

While it is unclear what he will be doing next, the expectation is that he will stay in Hong Kong.

According to one source, Tan started his new job on Monday last week, joining the two remaining syndicate bankers on the desk — Stephanie Yeung, who has been with Macquarie for about one-and-a-half years, and one junior associate. Before his sabbatical, Tan was head of Hong Kong and China sales trading. He previously also worked with the bank’s real estate team in Australia.

The transfer of a sales trader to the syndicate desk has become more common in the past couple of years and is likely a reflection of the fact that the ECM business in the region has been shifting more towards block trades, while IPO activity has been slowing down. And that means the syndicate role overlaps a lot more with that of a salesman.

Wernert will retain his dual role as head of Asia ECM and equity syndication.

The restructuring of the syndicate desk comes after Macquarie hired a couple of ex-Morgan Stanley bankers for its ECM origination team in the fourth quarter of last year. Sophia Liang joined in October as head of ECM for Greater China, replacing Danny Wong who left the firm to become head of Asia ECM at Jefferies. And in December, Macquarie brought on board Arthur van Dijk as a managing director with a pan-Asia focus.

Macquarie declined to comment.