Societe Generale has appointed Andy Liu as head of debt capital markets and Raj Malhotra as head of DCM for Southeast Asia and India as the French bank seeks to expand its credit franchise in the fast-growing asset class.
Based in Hong Kong, Liu will be responsible for continuing the development of SocGen’s DCM business in China while Malhotra, who is based in Singapore, will focus on providing DCM solutions to issuers based in Southeast Asia and India. They both report to Yves Jacob, head of DCM for Asia-Pacific.
SocGen has been actively developing its DCM capabilities in Asia-Pacific over the years. In addition to its Hong Kong team, the financial institution has also set up a team in Korea in August 2013.
Across the region, SocGen has been on a few landmark debt transactions this year. The bank helped arrange a Rmb500 million ($81.5 million) 10-year bond for China Development Bank in July and a S$60 million ($48 million) three-year guaranteed offering for Laos-based automobile and motorcycles manufacturer Kolao in August.
Also, it helped arrange Hong Kong-based conglomerate Noble Group’s $350 million perpetual note in June and Korea Export-Import Bank’s $1.5 billion dual-tranche offering in January this year.
"This expansion of the DCM platform represents an important step in SocGen CIB’s ongoing actions to strengthen its credit platform in Asia-Pacific and demonstrate the bank’s bullish view on the growth of DCM in the region," said Jacob.
SocGen is currently in 18th position in Dealogic's Asia-ex Japan G3 bonds bookrunner ranking, having executed $1.8 billion or 12 deals year-to-date. The bank's market share has grown to 1.2% from 0.3% during the same period last year.
So far there has been a total of close to $150 billion G3 bond issuances in Asia ex-Japan, according to Dealogic.
Liu joins SocGen from ICBC International, where he was head of DCM in Hong Kong. Previously, he worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York as vice president for the institution’s structured finance and origination group.
Malhotra, on the other hand, joins SocGen from Nomura, where he was the head of DCM, Southeast Asia. Previously, he worked at UBS in Singapore as joint-head of DCM for Southeast Asia after being the head of Nordic DCM in the UK for two years.
