Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Martin Siah as head of Asia real estate investment banking and head of Singapore investment banking, according to a memo dated June 29 seen by FinanceAsia.
He will report jointly to Chris Gammons and Alex To, both co-heads of Asia Pacific investment banking and to Jeff Horowitz, global head of real estate, gaming and lodging. Siah will start in September and initially be based in Hong Kong.
In his new role, Siah will be responsible for the overall growth and strategy of the regional real estate and Singapore coverage efforts. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has advised on a number of high-profile Singapore deals including OCBC's acquisition of Wing Hang Bank last year.
His appointment comes shortly after Gammons and To were appointed co-heads of Asia Pacific investment banking earlier this week.
The Singapore investment banking head remit previously fell under Gammons' purview as head of Southeast Asia investment banking. Now that he has been promoted, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Siah as head of Singapore investment banking.
The Asia real estate investment banking role has been vacant for some time. Siah joins from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was most recently head of Greater China and Southeast Asia commercial real estate and also led the bank's commercial real estate equity and advisory practice.
Before joining Standard Chartered, Siah spent more than 10 years at UBS where he was head of real estate investment banking and head of Southeast Asia corporate finance.
Siah holds a master's degree in philosophy in finance from Cambridge University and is a member of the capital markets and financial advisory services examinations board in Singapore.
A number of bankers have left Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Singapore office recently, including Axel Granger, previously head of Southeast Asia M&A, who joined independent advisory firm Evercore.
A spokeswoman for Bank of America Merrill Lynch declined to comment.
