The changes continue at UBS, with the Swiss Bank shaking up its cash equities and equity derivatives franchise, adding veteran recruits and shuffling senior bankers.
A person familiar with the situation set out the changes, which involve an internal reorganisation, while two new senior hires will join next month.
The new recruits are Vikesh Kotecha, who becomes Asia-Pacific head of equity derivatives and Stephane Petermann, named head of equity volatility trading.
Kotecha will lead the derivatives business, which includes structured and over-the-counter products such as options and warrants, as well as exchange-traded funds, among others.
An equity derivatives specialist with more than 20 years' experience, his most recent role was as head of Asia-Pacific equities at Barclays, which closed its Asian cash equities business in January last year.
In his role at UBS, Kotecha will have dual reporting lines. On the equity derivatives side, he will report to global head of equity derivatives Dushyant Chadha. On the regional level he will report to Taichi Takahashi, head of Asia-Pacfic equities.
Petermann will join from Société Générale, where he was head of Asia-Pacific equity volatility trading. He brings more than 25 years of equities and forex trading experience, having previously worked for BNP Paribas.
UBS will also swap a number of senior positions in cash equities and equity derivatives, as well as sales and trading.
Hirofumi Takaku, who joined UBS in 2003 and has been head of Japan equities since 2014, will be appointed Asia-Pacific head of equity derivatives structured sales, which means he will be taking up more client-facing responsibilities than his previous role.
He will relocate to Hong Kong from Tokyo as part of the reshuffle.
Filling Takaku’s role is Paul Redbourn, currently head of cash equities distribution in Japan. A long-serving banker who joined UBS in 1994, Redbourn will be appointed head of Japan equities effective April 3.
He will report to Japan country head Zenji Nakamura on a country level, and Taichi Takahashi on a regional level.
In China, the bank has appointed Yiwei Guan as head of China advisory sales for UBS Securities, its local securities joint venture. He will mainly be responsible for equities distribution and will report to David Xu, UBS Securities’ head of equities.
These appointments came shortly after the Swiss bank named Andrea Casati as Asia-Pacific head of equity syndicate earlier this week. Casati will be joining UBS in May from JP Morgan, where he is currently head of internal equity capital markets syndicate based in Hong Kong.
UBS has seen a series of personnel changes in the region in recent months, losing its Asia-Pacific head of investment banking, Joseph Chee in Janaury. His exit followed Asia ECM co-head Damien Brosnan’s resignation in December and the departure of Asia bond duo Paul Au and Patrick Liu in November.
