Avi Bindra – who is widely regarded as the best loan markets professional in Asia – recently left Citibank, where he had run its league table-topping Asian loan business. His challenge at HSBC is to repeat this success.
This is the mandate that he has been given by HSBC's uber-banker, Stuart Gulliver. Gulliver, who took control of all debt, equity and corporate finance products last year, quickly recognised that while HSBC is strong in the Hong Kong loan market it has been less aggressive in the rest of Asia. This is where Bindra's expertise will come to the fore.
Given that no bank in Asia has deeper corporate relationships than HSBC, Bindra's task will be to leverage these into arranger roles on the syndicated lending front.
Bindra, who was at Citi for almost 26 years, will have the title co-head of investment banking, Asia.
In a separate announcement, HSBC will confirm that the other co-heads of investment banking will be Mark Bucknall, Nick Bryan-Brown and Peter Au-Yang. Bindra will join HSBC immediately after Chinese New Year.
