UBS will enhance its equity capability in the region by bringing four new research analysts to the highly ranked research team. The new additions will bolster the bank's capabilities on the telecoms, petrochemicals, transport and small cap sectors.
In Singapore, Syed Razif Al-Idid comes on board as ASEAN telecom analyst. He will take on immediate coverage responsibility for the Singapore and Indonesia markets, expanding his scope to include Malaysia in the near future. Al-Idid will also collaborate with the regional country heads on UBS' ASEAN telecom strategy and jointly report to Bill Sohn and Dylan Tinker, the bank's co-heads of regional telecom.
He shifts to the new position on September 1 after spending four years with ING looking at ASEAN telecoms. Al-Idid has also worked for Merrill Lynch as a Malaysian country analyst.
Joe Pai will pack his bags and relocate to UBS Hong Kong from CLSA Taipei. From October 1, UBS will employ Pai as an analyst covering the Korean and Taiwanese petrochemical sectors. From Hong Kong, he will assume coverage responsibility for nine petrochemical stocks in Korea and Taiwan and help co-ordinate the regional petrochemical product for the bank. Pai will report to Cheng Khoo, head of oil & gas and chemicals research.
He moves from a CLSA position where since 2002 he covered Korean and Taiwanese petrochemical stocks. His Taiwan experience also includes three years at Far Eastern Textile as director of investor relations and five years in domestic buy and sell roles.
Joining Pai at UBS Hong Kong will be Erica Poon Werkun. She comes to the firm as Hong Kong-China small cap analyst where she will cover consumer and textile related stocks. She reports to David Lepper, UBS' head of regional small cap research and will work closely with the regional small cap team to enhance the bank's sector coverage.
Commencing with the firm immediately, Poon Werkun bids farewell to Goldman Sachs' Asian property/consumer team. To UBS, she also brings experience in the Asian hardware components, IC design and optical storage industries. Her resume also consists of stints in the investment banking division of CSFB and SG Cowen Securities.
UBS' third Hong Kong-based research hire is Tom Kim who departs Morgan Stanley to cover regional shipping from the beginning of September. For the Swiss bank, Kim will focus on shipping stocks in Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia, reporting to regional head of transport research, Timothy Ross.
At Morgan Stanley, Kim covered Hong Kong and Singapore conglomerates, joining this team in 2000. Before heading to Morgan Stanley, Kim also held accountant and consultant posts with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Singapore and the United States.
