Daiwa hires heads of fixed income in Korea and India

Daiwa Capital Markets (Daiwa), the investment banking arm of Japanese brokerage and financial services company Daiwa Securities Group, has hired two more bankers as heads of fixed income in Korea and India as it continues to expand its presence in Asia.

Jung Insuk has joined from Shinhan Investment Corp to head up the fixed income division in Korea, while Ajay Marwaha has come on board to run fixed income in India. Marwaha, who started in mid-June, was previously an executive director with Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India). In the past he has been responsible for fixed-income, currency and commodities (FICC) trading and involved in the launch of primary dealer businesses at both Lehman Brothers and Citi.

Insuk, who joined on July 12, was most recently head of FICC at Shinhan Investment, the brokerage arm of Korea's largest financial group. Prior to that, he was responsible for trading a wide variety of FICC products such as domestic and international bonds, currencies and derivatives at Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and KDB Securities.  

These hires come only days after Daiwa said it had appointed Chang-Lok Kim, former deputy minister of finance and economy in Korea, as a senior adviser to help develop its businesses in the Asian region. The firm has set some aggressive targets for itself in Asia as it seeks to catch up with larger Japanese rival Nomura, which achieved a meaningful size and position in Asia overnight when it bought Lehman Brothers' operations in the region in 2008.

In November last year, Daiwa Securities announced a plan to invest ¥100 billion ($1.15 billion) to expand in Asia and to increase its headcount in the region to more than 1,100 by 2011. Earlier this month, a spokesperson told FinanceAsia that it had hired about 100 people in Asia since then. Those same numbers were reiterated at a press briefing in Hong Kong yesterday and the bank said its headcount in Asia is currently about 850. An executive said the group expects to generate ¥160 billion in revenue from its Asia-related businesses in the fiscal year to March 2011.

"We expect Asia-related revenue for fiscal year 2011 to account for approximately 30% of the group revenue, a significant increase from the current level of 10%," said Shigeharu Suzuki, president and CEO of Daiwa Securities.

The revenue increase will be helped by the acquisition earlier this month of KBC Group's global convertible bonds and Asian equity derivatives businesses, for which Daiwa will fork out approximately $1 billion.

The Asia expansion plan focuses specifically on fixed-income and derivative operations and primarily targets China and Hong Kong, followed by India, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.

Outside of Japan, the fixed-income markets in Korea and India are the second and third largest in Asia, trailing only China, and Daiwa said it plans to acquire primary dealership and derivatives licences in both countries. The appointment of Insuk and Marwaha will be followed by further hires in these two markets, Daiwa Capital Markets said in the release.

"Daiwa aims to be an investment bank representing Asia through providing Asian countries with a full range of investment banking services, as we already do in Japan," said Matsushima, global head of markets.