Deutsche gives Gearhart debt origination duties

Deutsche Bank has appointed Jake Gearhart as its head of debt syndicate and origination for Asia Pacific, effectively replacing Herman van den Wall Bake, who left the lender last month, the German bank said on Friday.

Gearhart, a 19-year Deutsche veteran, most recently headed the German bank’s global risk syndicate for Asia. He previously held roles in debt capital markets covering financial institutions and investment-grade trading.

In his new role, Gearhart will focus on syndicate and fixed-income capital markets including investment-grade and high-yield bonds and loans, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Deutsche Bank said. The veteran banker will continue to be based in Singapore, where he moved to from New York in 2012 after being named head of global risk syndicate for Asia.

Gearhart will report to Simon Roue who was named head of DCM for Asia Pacific in December. Roue is relocating to Singapore from Tokyo to take up the new role.

The moves come after van den Wall Bake decided to leave the bank in December shortly after the new co-chief executive, John Cryan, announced a radical downsizing programme in October. The restructuring programme, dubbed “Strategy 2020”, will reshape the bank’s cost structure and eliminate 9,000 full-time jobs, about half of them in Germany, plus another 6,000 contract jobs.

When contacted by FinanceAsia, van den Wall Bake said he was set to leave the financial industry in Asia and head back to Europe with his family in the summer. “For the moment I plan to pursue my entrepreneurial ideas in Europe,” he said in a phone interview.

As part of its restructuring plan, Deutsche Bank said in late December that it had sold its entire 19.99% stake in Chinese lender Hua Xia Bank to PICC Property and Causalty for Rmb23 billion to Rmb25.7 billion ($3.49 to $3.90 billion, based on current exchange rates).

According to Dealogic, Deutsche Bank finished third last year in the tightly contested G3 investment-grade league table for Asia excluding Japan with $8.15 billion from 54 deals, up one notch from fourth place in 2014.

However, Germany's largest lender slipped three places to sixth in G3 high-yield issuance, raising $729 million in six transactions.