Richdale, who has led the Asia-Pacific general industries group since late 2006, will move from Hong Kong to Singapore to take up her new job. In addition to the CEO role, she will serve as head of investment banking for Southeast Asia, a position she also held during the latter part of a previous stint in Singapore between 2001 and 2006. In a written comment, Richdale said she is ôdelightedö to return to Singapore.
ôI look forward to working with our Southeast Asia clients and contributing to the firmÆs success not only locally, but across the globe, given the regionÆs international importance and connectivity,ö she said.
Her appointment as head of investment banking for Southeast Asia fills a gap left open when Rohit Sipahimalani resigned in October to join Temasek after 11 years at Morgan Stanley. The dual role suggests that she will continue to be actively involved on the deal side and in the pursuit of key investment banking mandates in the region.
As CEO she will drive the development of the firmÆs businesses in Southeast Asia across all product categories, including investment banking and capital markets, institutional sales and trading, commodities, asset management and private wealth management. The energy and enthusiasm displayed by Richdale in her current job as head of GIG is likely what has landed her such a key role at the age of 40 and at a time when Morgan Stanley is putting more focus on Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia.
Earlier this month, the US investment bankÆs operating platform in Indonesia was granted a license to offer a full range of onshore investment banking, underwriting and brokerage services and bankers at the firm say they expect to be more active with regard to deals out of this market in 2009. Elsewhere in the region, the bank formed a securities joint venture, Morgan Stanley Gateway Securities, in Vietnam in early 2008 to offer investment banking advisory and underwriting, brokerage services and research. It will also engage in principal investing.
Morgan Stanley opened its first Southeast Asian office in Singapore in 1985 and currently has almost 600 staff across the region, which continues to be an important priority for the US investment bank, according to Owen Thomas, the firmÆs Asia CEO. ôBuilding on Ronald and GregÆs achievements, KateÆs banking skills, leadership and passion for the business will be valuable assets as we continue to grow our Southeast Asia platforms,ö he added.
During the course of this year, Morgan Stanley has acted as one of two advisers to Temasek (alongside Credit Suisse) on the auction sale of two Singapore power companies at $3 billion and $2.8 billion respectively. A third power generator was also put up for sale, but that process was discontinued earlier this week due to the difficult market conditions.
Together with Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley also advised private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) on its $575 million acquisition of Singapore-listed Unisteel and in Indonesia it advised the board of Lippo Bank on a $1.5 billion merger with Bank Niaga, among other things.
Richdale has done a stellar job in building Morgan StanleyÆs GIG team in the region, which includes energy and utilities, basic materials, consumer retail and gaming, industrials, healthcare and specialty chemicals, as well as transportation, logistics and infrastructure. In 2007, Morgan Stanley was named as the best GIG house in Asia ex-Japan by FinanceAsia, in recognition of it having brought a string of Chinese entrepreneurial firms across these industries to the Hong Kong equity market and a solid M&A franchise.
As of yesterday it wasnÆt clear who will take over RichdaleÆs role as head of the group, but it is understood that Matthew Ginsburg, who is head of investment banking for Asia-Pacific, will become acting head for the time being. With no fewer than six managing or executive directors (not counting Richdale herself) out of a total of 35 bankers and analysts, the GIG team certainly has enough talent to draw from when it comes to naming a new head. However, given the senior leadership within the individual sectors, the bank will be under no immediate pressure to appoint a successor.
Richdale, who grew up in Hong Kong and is a fluent Mandarin speaker, joined Morgan StanleyÆs debt capital markets team in Hong Kong in 2000. She moved to Singapore in 2001 to become head of capital markets for Southeast Asia and has been a managing director since 2003. She returned to Hong Kong in December 2006 to head up the GIG team, filling a position which had been left vacant when Matt Hanning moved across to UBS a couple of months earlier. Prior to her career at Morgan Stanley, Richdale worked in DCM origination at J.P. Morgan.
Ong has been CEO for Southeast Asia since 2004. In his new role as chairman he will play a senior coverage role to the firmÆs clients across the region.
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