Standard Chartered has hired Ken Olson as global head of equity-linked solutions, based in Hong Kong, a source said yesterday. The job will involve the origination of convertible bonds as well as corporate equity derivatives.
Olson was previously with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Japan, although he focused on equity-linked issuance and corporate derivatives across Asia as part of Andrew Cooper’s team. Cooper, who was Asia-Pacific head of corporate finance and structured equity-linked capital markets, resigned from BoA Merrill in August last year to pursue interests outside investment banking. Olson left the firm in September.
At Standard Chartered, Olson has taken over the role that was left vacant when Nathan McMurtray left the firm after little more than a year to join Deutsche Bank in June last year. His hire will restore Standard Chartered’s equity-linked capabilities to the level where the bank feels it should be, a source said yesterday. After the addition of Olson last week, Standard Chartered has four bankers in Hong Kong and one in Singapore working in its equity-linked and corporate equity derivatives team, including Barton Lee, who has essentially been running the CB product since McMurtray left. The bank is about to add one or two more people to the team, the source said.
Olson, who is joining Standard Chartered as a managing director, is reporting directly to David Douglas, the firm’s global head of equity capital markets.
Olson spent about seven years at BoA Merrill as head of Japan equity-linked capital markets and Asia-Pacific corporate finance risk structuring, according to his profile on LinkedIn. Before that he was a manager of corporate finance at IBM for close to four-and-a-half years. In the 1990s he worked as a derivatives trader at ING Baring Securities.
Standard Chartered is currently ranked seventh in Dealogic’s equity-linked league table for Asia ex-Japan after working on two public deals so far this year: a $130 million fixed-price CB for Indian autoparts maker Amtek India that came with a 5% conversion premium; and the $180 million CB for Taiwan’s Wistron Corp, where it was one of seven joint bookrunners.
The ranking is up slightly from its ninth place finish in 2011. BoA Merrill is currently ranked fourth (although it too has worked on only two deals), which is up from 10th for the full year 2011.
