HSBC has promoted Olivier de Grivel to be co-head of global financial institutions group, according to an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia. The memo was signed off by Robin Philips, HSBC’s global head of banking.
De Grivel will jointly lead the FIG group with Brian Heyworth. Both de Grivel and Heyworth report to Philips. De Grivel will remain based in Hong Kong and continue to head FIG Asia Pacific, reporting locally to Gordon French, head of global banking and markets Asia Pacific.
De Grivel replaces Giles Harrison, previously a global co-head of FIG at HSBC, who left the bank earlier this year. De Grivel joined HSBC 18 months ago as head of FIG for Asia-Pacific, after 30 years working at JP Morgan. At the US firm, he was head of FIG in Asia for six years and also worked in Europe and the US before moving to Asia in 2006.
According to Dealogic data, HSBC is ranked eighth in terms of FIG core investment banking revenue for Asia ex-Japan with an estimated $11 million of net revenue in 2014 to date. The bank has been leading on the debt front, where it is ranked first in the Asia ex-Japan FIG debt capital markets league tables for 2014 year-to-date.
Bank capital has been an area of focus for Asia's banks as they shore up their capital adequacy ratios and, in this respect, HSBC has been active in arranging Basel III compliant debt for Asian banks.
Notably, it was a bookrunner on OCBC’s $1 billion Basel III compliant dollar bond, the largest Basel III compliant bond and the first ever bank capital transaction in the 144a market in Asia ex-Japan, according to Dealogic. It was also a bookrunner on United Overseas Bank’s $800 million Basel III compliant Tier 2 subordinated note.
HSBC has traditionally been strong as a debt house and, although it has been making headway in building a presence in equity capital markets and M&A, it is not among the top 10 for FIG equity capital markets or M&A league tables so far this year, according to Dealogic data. On the equity capital markets front, HSBC was a bookrunner on State Bank of India's $1.3 billion share placement.
