China Renaissance has appointed Andrew MacInnes, an experienced financier in fintech and investment banking, as chief executive officer of its US arm, underscoring the Chinese boutique investment bank’s growing overseas ambitions.
In a press release on Wednesday, China Renaissance said MacInnes in the newly created role will lead a 10-person team in New York and report to Jason Lam, president of the bank’s Hong Kong office.
Set up in 2004, China Renaissance is one of China's fastest-growing investment banks with strong ties to the country’s technology start-up community.
Already a major player in China's buoyant TMT sector, the Beijing-based bank now plans to expand its cross-border investment banking and asset management interests.
“Andrew’s appointment will bolster the growth of our existing business and the expansion of new business lines in the US,” Bao Fan, founder and chairman of China Renaissance, said in the release.
MacInnes was most recently the CEO and founder of Brilliquid, a New Jersey-based boutique fintech company that has provided financial advisory services since 2013. Prior to that, he was the president for about one year at magicJack VocalTec, a Nasdaq-listed technology company.
Holding a bachelor of science in monetary economics from the London School of Economics, MacInnes began his career at Salomon Brothers in 1988 and worked in both bond portfolio analysis and equity capital markets teams for nearly a decade.
After that, he landed a job on CIBC Oppenheimer where he stayed for 14 years. He first worked on equity-linked and convertible originations before being promoted to head of US ECM/syndicate in 2003 and five years later to head of Asia investment banking.
His hire comes one month after FinanceAsia reported that two senior bankers, Diao Yang, head of client solutions groups, and Gloria Lu, head of equities, were leaving the bank to pursue other opportunities.
One person with knowledge of the issue told FinanceAsia in March that China Renaissance had already secured both replacements from rival western banks, with an official announcement due soon, and plans to double its equity team to 30 people by the end of the year.
Previously, the bank had been snapping up senior bankers from its Western peers. It poached Jason Lam and Kevin Xie from Credit Suisse.
Chairman Bao told FinanceAsia in an interview in November that he aimed to expand the bank’s footprint in the US by opening an office in San Francisco this year.
“A local presence [in the US] can offer me a lot of important intelligence and knowledge, which is valuable, because I can leverage that from my business in China,” he said at the time.
