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Houston Huang Guobin will join JP Morgan later this year as head of global investment banking for China from Goldman Sachs, according to a memo seen by FinanceAsia on Tuesday.
Huang is known as a rainmaker in banking circles and has worked on some landmark IPOs of late such as China Railway Signal & Communication’s $1.42 billion listing in Hong Kong where Goldman was a joint book runner.
Huang will report to David Li, chairman and CEO for China and co-head of banking for Greater China.
“China is a key market for us regionally and globally and we are confident about its long term growth prospects," said Nicolas Aguzin, CEO for Asia Pacific in the memo. "As our international and Chinese clients expand their businesses, we see significant opportunities to serve them.”
He joins JP Morgan at a time of substantial reshuffle at the New York-headquartered bank. In April, the bank announced a series of appointments designed to reduce layers of management.
JP Morgan has also lost senior bankers such as Fang Fang who retired, Shao Zili who joined a law firm and Todd Marin who is lecturing at Chinese University of Hong Kong.
To be sure other banks have also seen defections of late. In addition to Huang, Goldman lost Asian TMT banker Tony Yip early this summer to China’s Baidu.
All change
Changes in JP Morgan have partly cascaded down through the bank in Asia following the promotion of Carl Chien to co-head of banking for Greater China in April and after David Li was hired from UBS last year to replace Shao Zili.
JP Morgan recently named new investment banking heads in Taiwan and in Hong Kong reporting up to Chien.
Huang replaces Brian Gu and Zhao Jing who were named co-heads of China investment banking only in March last year. Gu has since been made co-head of Asia Pacific M&A while Zhao is vice-chairman of Asia Pacific coverage of financial institutions reporting to Murli.
Houston lands
Huang spent about four years at Goldman Sachs most recently as the head of its China industrials group.
With more than 20 years’ of experience in investment banking in China and abroad, Huang has developed long-standing relationships with local corporations across a variety of sectors including healthcare, oil and gas, financial institutions and industrials.
Prior to joining Goldman, Houston spent eleven years at China International Capital Corporation (CICC), where he was head of European investment banking, head of the business development committee and a member of the investment banking operation committee.
While at CICC, he led the execution and coverage of many large privatisation and fundraising projects in the Chinese oil and gas, banking, machinery and healthcare industries.
Additionally, Huang advised China's State Council on healthcare reform.
Earlier, Huang worked at Crosby (UK) Limited in London from 1998 to 1999 and Peregrine Capital Limited from 1993 to 1996.
Huang earned an MBA from the Lancaster University Management School in 1997 and a BSc in the Science of Materials and a BSc in Economics and Management from Tongji University in 1991.
