Societe Generale has hired a top banker from French rival BNP Paribas to run its Asian investment banking arm.
Hikaru Ogata starts as chief executive of the Asian corporate and investment bank on September 1. He replaces De Doan Tran, who left in January after 25 years with SG to head Natixis's investment banking business.
Ogata will report to Michel Peretie, the chief executive of SG's corporate and investment bank. "As our firm looks ahead, we see tremendous opportunity to move our business forward with corporates and financial institutions in Asia," said Peretie. "Hikaru will contribute to further developing and executing our strategy in the region."
The loss of Ogata is a blow to BNP, according to one source. After four years of successfully running fixed income in Japan, Ogata was promoted just last October to a global role in charge of fixed-income sales based in the bank's London office. "He represented a hope of change," said the source.
Ogata's departure is not the only upheaval within BNP's fixed-income team. In May, the bank announced a new deputy global head of fixed income and global heads for fixed-income distribution, primary markets and origination, credit trading and interest rates trading.
