Crammond, one of Asia's most experienced equity syndicate hands, joined SG Securities yesterday (Monday) after taking a short sabbatical from the markets when his former employer DLJ (Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette) was purchased by his prior former employer Credit Suisse First Boston.
With a new role encompassing both origination and execution, Crammond becomes a director in the equity capital markets division reporting to Stuart Mowbray, managing director and head of equity corporate finance.
Crammond has been based in Hong Kong since the middle of 1996, becoming head of equity syndicate at CSFB in January 1998. He then left to help establish an ECM team at DLJ in May 2000, only a few months before its sudden acquisition.
The appointment follows a number of senior recruitments by SG, the investment banking arm of Societe Generale. As Mowbray comments: "We have been actively building the team since May 2000, putting together a combined advisory and equity capital markets group based around a matrix of sector and product teams."
On the advisory side, the bank acted last year for Renault in its attempt to buy Daewoo Motor and has also done a number of projects for Frazer and Neave in Singapore. Going forwards, SG also hopes to play to its global strengths, particularly its expertise in derivatives and equity-linked instruments.
Many banks have recently been beefing up their convertible desks as the market starts to re-find its feet for the first time since the Asian crisis. In Europe, SG has always been one of the strongest houses, topping the league tables in 1999 and standing seventh in 2000 according to Capital Data Equityware.
Similarly, it also hopes to use the distribution capabilities of SG Cowen Securities as a springboard to bring Asian companies to the US markets. SG Cowen has a strong niche in the tech sector and finished 17th in the overall US league tables during 2000, according to Capita Data Equityware.
Over the past six to nine months, a 40-strong team has been established, with recent hires including: Robert McGregor from DkW who specializes in utilities; Suberna Shringla from Time Warner who has a tech beat; Damien Hills from Williams plc who is a generalist; David Goade from HSBC who is a convertibles specialist; and Bruce Macdiarmid who is another generalist.