Rothschild hires new head of consumer products for Asia

Rothschild, the independent and privately owned investment bank, has hired Rohit Elhence to head up its consumer products team in Asia, replacing Alexis Masters who will be returning to London to rejoin the consumer team there.

Elhence, who has already started his new job, joins after 12 years with Macquarie where he was most recently a managing director responsible for the coverage of the consumer and retail sector across Asia-Pacific. During his time with the Australian investment bank he was involved in M&A and capital-raising transactions in every major market in the region, and worked with global and regional companies as well as with private equity clients.

At Rothschild, where he will also be a managing director, he will lead consumer sector coverage and execution in Asia with a focus both on capital markets transactions and M&A. He will also work closely with Rothschild’s consumer sector bankers globally. He is based in Singapore and reports to Mark Florance, who is head of Southeast Asia. From a sector perspective, he also has a reporting line to Akeel Sachak in London.

A qualified chartered accountant by training, Elhence started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and has also worked with Bankers Trust.

Rothschild, which employs 1,000 advisers in 40 countries around the world, has had a presence in Asia for more than 150 years and set up a permanent office in the region in 1973. At first, it focused on M&A, restructuring and government privatisations, but in the past few years it has become more active in advising Asia-based clients on equity issues as well. This has allowed it to tap into a growing demand among issuers for independent advice, away from the usual bookrunners and underwriters that are sometimes perceived to have a vested interest.

In the consumer sector, it advised Huiyin Household Appliances on its $70 million initial public offering in Hong Kong in March last year, which included helping the company with the restructuring, the introduction of pre-IPO investors, the selection of global coordinators and underwriters for the IPO and in communicating its investment story to investors.

It also advised French supermarket and retail group Casino on its acquisition of French rival Carrefour’s stores in Thailand, and US-listed McCormick, a producer of flavourings and spices, on its purchase of a 26% stake in India’s Eastern Condiments.