Steve Metcalfe, one of CSFB's senior originators, has left the firm to become co-head of Asian Equity Capital Markets at Nomura Securities. The man with not one but two Blackberry hand held devices will join Nomura towards the end of August and lead an expanding ECM team with his new co-head and old friend David Dean.
His appointment follows a recent capital injection at the Japanese securities firm, which is starting to make a big push in the region under Minoro Shinohara, head of Asian investment banking. Shinohara came to Asia at the beginning of the year, with a strong equities background, having previously run ECM in both Tokyo and London.
Nomura has always had a very strong presence in Taiwan, where it has been one of the top four GDR bookrunners over the past decade. Since Dean's arrival in 2001, the firm has also established a very strong niche running POWL (Public Offerings Without Listing) in Japan. Starting with Korea Telecom, Nomura has led seven POWL's and placed more than $1.3 billion of paper into the Japanese retail market, most of which has come from Chinese deals including PICC, Bank of China and China Telecom.
The firm now hopes to build on this success by broadening its franchise in the region and particularly China, where Metcalfe will bring his long experience to bear. It is also hoping to double headcount at the five strong team.
Metcalfe leaves CSFB on extremely good terms and indeed, is likely to be working with his old firm again very soon, since Nomura is running the POWL for Singapore mobile operator Starhub, which is expected to launch its IPO via CSFB and UBS in September.
Like Nomura, CSFB has also been in expansion mode, re-building its ECM team under Marshall Nicholson, who came to the region in 2002. Excluding assistants, there are now 12 bankers covering syndicate, origination and equity derivatives.
New hires this year have sought to add breadth and depth to the team, where most of the senior orginators have experience across a number of products and geographies. Most, including Nicholson, have a strong convertibles background and all market in China.
Earlier this year, director Harold Chang was transferred from investment banking to cover Korea and parts of Hong Kong. This was followed by the appointment of associate Tucker Highfield from Lehman Brothers, who has experience in Taiwan.
Most recently, Lawrence Lau was hired from Dresdner to help Max Weber on the CB desk. Other team members include Simon Aird, who runs syndicate, Roger Lam, who runs equity derivatives and Mervyn Chow, who covers Taiwan.
Metcalfe's departure means Chow is now the longest serving member of a team, previously run by nautical Nick Andrews, before he became head of Asian ECM, then regional equities at JPMorgan. Like his former boss, Metcalfe is also a keen sailor and is in the process of upgrading his boat as well as his job.
Metcalfe joined CSFB in October 1999 after spending a year in Tokyo with UBS. He has been based in Asia since 1994.
