Jiang Guorong, China International Capital Corporation’s co-head of investment banking, is to join UBS to help run its Chinese IB business, according to two sources close to the situation.
Jiang, who is also executive chairman of CICC’s investment banking committee, has worked at the Chinese bank for about 10 years, which has seen him take various roles in equity capital markets and the investment banking department.
He was also appointed to the listing committee of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in June 2009.
The move was first reported by China Business News, a local media group.
Prior to CICC, Jiang worked for the Bank for International Settlements, the IMF and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Jiang holds a PhD in economics from Cornell University, according to the HKSE website.
It is not clear when Jiang will start at UBS; nor is it clear what title Jiang will take. Zhao Ju and Cai Wei are co-heads of China investment banking although Zhao is currently on a 12-month break from the bank, which began at the end of last year. This will include a fellowship at Harvard University to study politics and public administration.
One of the sources said there is a big chance that Zhao will not come back to UBS after the completion of the visiting fellowship, which suggests Jiang’s move is a replacement.
The Swiss bank just promoted Matt Hanning to head of investment banking for Asia-Pacific, replacing Matthew Grounds, who will focus on running the Swiss bank’s Australian business, reported by FinanceAsia.
As Jiang’s move has been discussed for a while within CICC – as well as Huang Zhaohui remaining as co-head of investment banking – the bank's businesses should not be impacted, according to the second source.
CICC should soon find a replacement for Jiang, given the bank is used to appointing co-heads in several departments. Both of Jiang and Huang have taken the co-head position since 2011.
UBS ranks 7th in terms of China IB revenue and 4th for China cross-border ECM during the past year, as of May 16, according to Dealogic data. Meanwhile, CICC ranked 11th and 8th during the same time period, respectively.
Jiang could not be reached for comment. Both CICC and UBS declined to comment.
