UBS has appointed Saurabh Beniwal to a new position as head of investment banking for Southeast Asia excluding the Philippines, according to a source. The appointment reflects the increased activity in this region, both for the industry as a whole and for UBS specifically
Beniwal will retain his current job as head of technology, media and telecoms (TMT) alongside his new position, but will relocate from Hong Kong to Singapore.
His new role will see him work closely with UBS’s senior bankers across Southeast Asia and coordinate the coverage between countries. He will report to Matthew Hanning and David Chin, who are joint heads of investment banking for Asia Pacific.
The reason why the Philippines is excluded from Beniwal’s responsibilities is that it is viewed as a somewhat special market, the source says. UBS has a very strong position in the Philippines and was recently named by FinanceAsia as the best foreign investment bank in the country for the 12 months to May 2012. Its investment banking business there is headed by Lauro Baja.
Looking at Southeast Asia, equity capital markets have been particularly strong in the first half this year, with transaction values up 61% from the first half of 2012. The total deal value of $18.6 billion is the highest first half volume on record, according to preliminary data from Dealogic issued earlier this week.
Two of the world’s 10 biggest IPOs so far this year are by Southeast Asia-based trusts — Thailand’s BTS Rail Mass Transit Growth Infrastructure Fund, on which UBS was a joint bookrunner, and Singapore’s Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust. These two deals raised $2.1 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively.
In M&A, the first-half deal value reached $33.8 billion, which is largely flat versus last year’s $33.7 billion. Thailand was the busiest country with $8.2 billion thanks to CP All’s $6.6 billion acquisition of Siam Makro. UBS was one of the advisers to CP All.
Meanwhile, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are seeing record levels of G3 bond issuance. However, investment-banking revenues fell 3% to $766 million.
As of June 7, UBS ranked first in the Southeast Asia ECM league tables, but outside the top-10 for both debt capital markets and announced M&A in the region, Dealogic data show. Even so, the bank topped the core investment banking revenue ranking with $74 million.
Beniwal joined UBS in Hong Kong in 2000, focusing on telecoms and technology. In 2003 he was appointed head of the Asian technology group and in 2009 he was promoted to head of TMT for Asia-Pacific after the previous head, James Roth, took a sabbatical. Roth never returned from his leave and later resurfaced at Deutsche Bank as head of Asia general industries.
