Samsung Securities continues to boost its Asia team

Following its aggressive hiring within equity sales and research in the past 18 months, Samsung Securities International is now looking to boost its investment banking team in Asia by adding up to 20 corporate finance bankers. The new additions, which will be based in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, will add to the seven corporate finance bankers already on board, Paul Chong, the firm’s head of investment banking and principal investments, said yesterday.

Chong hopes to be able to hire the bulk of these bankers in the next few months after the payment of bonuses at most investment banks. The bonus round is typically followed by a period of musical chairs as bankers seek new challenges and rival banks take the chance to poach talent without having to “buy them out”.

Since the beginning of this year, Samsung Securities International, which is the Asian arm of one of Korea’s largest securities firms, has already signed on two new bankers, including Elton Zhang, who will come on board next week to take up a position as head of corporate finance for China. Zhang was most recently with Deutsche Bank for about one year, where he had a role that straddled the corporate finance and debt capital markets teams. He has previously also worked in the principal investment group with Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong and with BNP Paribas.

In addition to the corporate finance bankers, Samsung has also hired a head of equity syndicate who will come on board in late March. The syndicate head, who hasn’t yet been disclosed, is the first ECM hire made by Steven Metcalfe since he joined as head of equity capital markets in October and brings the ECM team to a total of two people. Next, he is looking to add some origination bankers.