John Lefevre, who last year teamed up with Jeremy Amias in Hong Kong to help build Amias Berman & Co as an independent, global fixed-income firm, is leaving the boutique for Goldman Sachs.
“I believe in the long-term success of the firm,” said Lefevre of Amias Berman. “But I thought this was a good opportunity and the right fit at the right time for me personally.”
Lefevre previously worked for Citi on the bank’s Asian bond syndicate desk from 2004 until April 2008. He handled dollar and euro bond issuance together with Citi's head of syndicate, Paul Au, in Hong Kong, until the financial crisis hit the American bank hard.
At Goldman Sachs, Lefevre will be an executive director and Asia head of syndicate and will focus on public and private debt, and euro medium-term notes, or EMTNs.
One of the big selling points of Goldman for Lefevre was that the firm has been building its fixed-income business in the region. For example, in January, Andrea Vella moved from London to head credit capital markets in Asia ex-Japan and the derivatives businesses in Asia. Late last year, Dominique Jooris relocated from London to become head of investment grade capital markets.
Of course, the firm has a long way to climb to the top of the heap in fixed-income in Asia. So far this year Goldman ranks number 9 in debt deals for Asia ex-Japan, having syndicated $2.6 billion split on 11 deals, according to Dealogic. Key deals include the $550 million new high-yield bond for Country Garden in April, Evergrande Real Estate's $750 million bond in January, and, on the local currency side, the Philippine’s recent Ps44.1 billion ($1 billion) peso-denominated 10-year global bond.
Lefevre will be starting at some time in October.
