Chris Gammons and Alex To have been appointed co-heads of Asia Pacific investment banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, according to a memo seen by FinanceAsia.
Gammons was previously head of Southeast Asia investment banking and head of Asia Pacific financial sponsors, based in Singapore. To was previously head of China investment banking based in Hong Kong. Both will remain in their respective locations.
Geographically, Gammons and To’s expertise lie in Southeast Asia and China respectively and their skill sets are complementary. Both Gammons and To will report to Jiro Seguchi, head of Asia Pacific global corporate and investment banking and Karim Assef and Diego De Giorgi, co-heads of global investment banking.
Prior to July 2012, Seguchi was head of investment banking for Asia Pacific, a position which had remained vacant since he was made co-head of Asia Pacific global corporate and investment banking, and subsequently sole head in 2013.
The move to appoint co-heads of investment banking in Asia Pacific will align the region with the structure used globally. It follows after Assef and De Giorgi were appointed co-heads of global investment banking in April reporting to Christian Meissner, head of global corporate and investment banking.
Investment banking country heads in Australia, India, Singapore, Korea, Japan and Greater China as well as sector heads for real estate, financial institutions group, energy and power, general industries group, telecoms, media and technology, and consumer, retail and healthcare will report to Gammons and To, as well as to their respective global industry heads.
The changes will introduce another layer of management but could result in quicker decision-making as the bankers will report into the co-heads of investment banking directly. Seguchi will be able to spend more time on strategy and integrating Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s corporate and investment bank as well as on the origination of Japanese deals, where his expertise lies.
In addition, Stephen Gore has been appointed head of Asia Pacific mergers and acquisitions. Gore was previously heading M&A for Asia, but Japan has now been added to his remit. He will also take on the role of head of Asia Pacific financial sponsors group, which Gammons previously held.
Financial sponsors has been a key focus for investment banking as they pay higher fees and are often serial dealmakers but it has been a relatively quiet first half for them in 2015.
In this new role, Gore will continue to report to Adrian Mee globally and will also report to Gammons and To. Gore joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch from UBS in 2012 and also headed up M&A in the region at the Swiss bank. He has been in Asia since 2005.
A Bank of America Merrill Lynch spokeswoman declined to comment on the appointments.
