Royal Bank of Scotland has added four more bankers to its Asia-Pacific equities team in a bid to keep up with the growing amount of business in the region. This brings the bank’s total appointments in the team to eight during the past nine months.
RBS said on Monday that it has hired Randolf Clinton as co-head of markets and head of equities, Australia, while also announcing that Simon Laugharne, Nicholas Carlton and Tom Turner will join the bank with senior roles in its equities business in Hong Kong.
“These new hires bring nearly 80 years of combined, multi-market experience in equities across Asia-Pacific and add considerable strength to our equities team. They represent a major step in reinforcing our continuing commitment to the equities business, where we see huge growth potential over the coming years,” said Peter Irvine, head of Asia-Pacific equities at RBS, in a written statement.
Clinton was formerly the head of cash equities for Asia ex-Japan and head of equities distribution for Asia-Pacific at J.P. Morgan. He also held the position of co-head of Australian equities for the US bank. He will report jointly to Peter Irvine and Stephen Williams, country executive and head of Australian banking.
“Randolf’s broader experience of Asia-Pacific equities will allow us to leverage the increasing linkages between Australian and Asian equities to make RBS a leading participant in the Asia-Pacific equity markets and a trusted and innovative counterparty for clients. His appointment re-iterates the strength of RBS’s equities franchise in Australia and our ability to continue to attract the very top talent,” said Williams.
Clinton succeeds Grahame Pratt, who has been at RBS for 10 years. His new role has not been confirmed, according to a spokeswoman at the bank.
Laugharne joins RBS as regional head of client-account management. He was formerly director of relationship management for Hong Kong equity and sovereign wealth fund clients at Deutsche Bank. He has 20 years of experience working in equities and research in Asia-Pacific.
Nicholas Carlton will head corporate access in the Asian equities business. He joins RBS from Macquarie where he was managing director of corporate broking at the firm’s capital advisory division. Carlton has more than 15 years of experience working within equities and research, at both Macquarie and JP Morgan.
Tom Turner takes on the role of head of facilitation and cash equity trading. His experience in capital markets spans 20 years across both Asia-Pacific and the US, most recently with Merrill Lynch as director of Asia regional equities trading.
Around the end of July last year, RBS made four senior appointments for its equity business, including Abhinav Gorawara as managing director, head of equity and structured retail sales; and Ben Wilder as managing director, senior structured product sales. It also appointed Cici Bian as director and senior structured product sales covering clients in the greater China region; and Monique Sin as director and senior structured product sales covering private banks.
In October last year, RBS Coutts, the international private banking arm of RBS, said it appointed eight new private bankers to its Southeast Asia team.
RBS is ranked at No 41 in Asia-Pacific in terms of equity capital business so far this year. It had 11 equity deals involving $359 million. Goldman Sachs is on the top of the list with 12 deals worth $6.1 billion, according to Dealogic.
Photo provided by AFP.
