UBS has hired Andrea Casati as its Asia Pacific head of equity syndicate, filling a position left vacant for the last three months.
Casati, who is currently head of internal equity capital markets syndicate at JP Morgan, will be joining UBS in mid-May, according to a memo seen by FinanceAsia and signed by Sam Kendall, Asia Pacific head of corporate client solutions, and head of equity solutions Michel Lee.
Casati’s appointment came after an extensive search for a suitable candidate over the last three months, during which UBS had considered some candidates from the buyside community, according to a person familiar with the situation.
But the Swiss bank decided its best bet was the hire of Casati, a veteran banker with over 15 years of experience in equity origination and distribution across various regions.
He has the benefit of understanding the culture of UBS. He worked at the bank between 2003 and 2008, holding multiple equity jobs in London. He then spent eight years with JP Morgan, where his jobs including head of internal equity capital markets syndicate and Asia-Pacific co-head of equity distribution based in Hong Kong. Before joining UBS, he had a stint at Goldman Sachs.
Casati is understood to be a direct replacement of Damien Brosnan, former co-head of ECM solutions in Asia-Pacific, who left the firm in December last year.
Brosnan joined UBS in 2012 as head of Asia Pacific equity syndicate and has been responsible for equity distribution as well as equity-linked origination and syndication.
In his new job, Casati will work closely with Asia Pacific ECM head Peihao Huang.
