Ravi Sinha will relocate to Hong Kong from New York in July to become co-head of the investment banking division in Asia ex-Japan, together with Mark Machin. Meanwhile, Richard Campbell-Breeden will relocate to Hong Kong from London in August to become co-head of M&A in Asia ex-Japan, along with Johan Leven.
Sources say that a year ago it would have been very difficult to get such high-level Goldman Sachs bankers to even consider moving to Asia, but these days thereÆs ôa little bit of underemployment of senior bankers in other parts of the worldö. So the moves make sense.
Both the head of investment banking and the head of M&A are co-head positions in Europe and the US; and indeed Machin was a co-head up until January when Richard Ong left the bank.
Sinha joined the firm in 1989 in mergers and acquisitions in New York. In 2002, he was named co-head of the Americas industrials group and was named co-head of the bankÆs global natural resources group in 2007.
Campbell-Breeden also joined the firm as an associate in 1989 in mergers and acquisitions in New York. He was co-head of the bankÆs UK investment banking business from 2000 to 2004 and has been co-head of the European financial sponsor group in Europe since 2004.
Sinha and Campbell-Breeden were both promoted to managing directors in 1998 and became partners in 2000.
The new co-heads are charged with the task of helping to build business in Asia, of course. But there's no word yet on how the M&A platform will be divvyed up.
Goldman Sachs bankers say, off the record, that given that the bank appears to have dodged the subprime problems, and still seems to have a strong balance sheet, now is a good time to build up the Asia business and take advantage of some of the competitorsÆ misfortunes. After moving such high-level bankers to the region to share an already small pie, the pressure is on to perform.
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