Annisa Lee has been appointed to lead Nomura’s flow credit desk analyst team in Asia ex-Japan, replacing Pradeep Mohinani who left the bank on Friday, according to an internal memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Mohinani was the head of the credit desk for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura for almost six years, overseeing the investment-grade and high-yield space across sovereigns, banks and corporates. He left the bank to pursue other opportunities outside the industry, a spokesperson at the bank confirmed.
“It has been a long hard decision to call it a day in this industry that I have called home for many, many years,” Mohinani, head of credit desk for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura, said in an email sent out on Friday.
Lee will remain in Hong Kong for her new role and will report directly to Chris Howe, head of credit products for Asia-Pacific, who will head up Nomura’s non-flow credit desk analyst team on an interim basis, until a replacement is announced.
Nomura’s credit department can be broken down into the flow and non-flow credit desk.
Flow credit trading is essentially the trading of liquid products, which includes bonds, loans, credit default swaps. This can range from the strongest investment grade issuers through high-yield and distressed assets.
Non-flow credit trading, on the other hand, refers to the trading of illiquid products or assets from the private financing sector.
Lee is currently a managing director at Nomura covering Asian high-yield issuers, including Indonesian coal mining and other industrial companies within the region. She joined Nomura Securities in October 2008 from Lehman Brothers, where she had the same responsibilities.
Prior to joining Lehman in 2005, Lee was a fixed-income analyst at ING Securities, covering both investment-grade and high-yield issues. She holds a bachelor degree in political science from the University of Hong Kong and a MBA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong
Mohinani was at Lehman from May 2005 prior to Nomura, where he also headed the bank’s Asia-Pacific credit research effort for three years. He has a bachelor of science in economics from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, US, and is a chartered financial analyst.
The job moves come as Nomura reported its first profit decline in seven quarters as waning enthusiasm over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic stimulus policies brought down stock trading volumes.
Nomura’s net profit from January to March fell 26% from a year earlier to Y61.3 billion ($597.8 million). That still beats the Y41 billion mean estimate from five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, due to a strong showing in its fixed-income and investment banking division.
Profit in Nomura's wholesale business, which includes overseas operations and investment banking, fell 6% from a year earlier but rose 20% from the previous quarter thanks to growth in its fixed income business.
