J.P. Morgan has hired Gordon Crosbie-Walsh in a bid to beef up its equity syndicate desk in Asia, according to sources. Crosbie-Walsh has a background in equity sales in Hong Kong, but has most recently been working with boutique firm Patersons Securities in Australia.
He will join J.P. Morgan as an executive director in Hong Kong towards the end of this month and will report to Eliot Fisk who is head of equity syndicate for Asia. His arrival will boost the number of people on the desk to three.
At Patersons Securities, Crosbie-Walsh has reportedly been focusing on corporate finance, but before he left Hong Kong three or four years ago, he was head of Hong Kong and China sales at Deutsche Bank. This makes him a good fit for the syndicate desk at J.P. Morgan as the firm continues to increase its presence in China IPOs.
Last year J.P. Morgan advanced to fifth in the overall equity league table for Asia from ninth the year before, according to data provider Dealogic. Looking at international deals only, which excludes China A-share offerings as well as other deals targeted at a domestic investor base only, the firm was third behind Morgan Stanley and UBS. The improvement came after J.P. Morgan helped arrange a number of significant IPOs for the likes of Zhongwang Holdings, BBMG, Shanda Games, Wynn Macau and CapitaMalls Asia.
Before joining Deutsche Bank in early 2002, Crosbie-Walsh worked in equity sales at Salomon Smith Barney in Hong Kong. He also speaks Cantonese, which will make him stand out among the equity syndicate bankers in Hong Kong, who are pre-dominantly Western.
