Before moving to Credit Suisse, Laungani was head of the communications and media group at Lehman Brothers, a position he held for five years. He was with Lehman Brothers for 14 years, having worked both in New York and Hong Kong.
Laungani will be based in Hong Kong and will report to Paul Raphael, head of Credit Suisse's Asia-Pacific investment banking department, and Giuseppe Monarchi, co-head of the European technology, media and telecommunications group within investment banking.
Laungani will not be covering technology, which will continue to be the responsibility of Jan Metzger and Jason Lam, co-heads of technology coverage in Asia ex-Japan.
The telecom and media sectors in Asia witness some large deals every year as the region still offers high-growth potential for established players from mature markets. Just this week Richard Li launched a plan to take his telecommunications firm PCCW private at an outlay of $1.9 billion, and last week Norwegian telecom operator Telenor paid over a billion dollars to acquire a controlling interest in Indian company Unitech Wireless. But clients are seeking balance sheet support as well as advice û HSBC, which is the adviser to PCCW, is also providing financing for the delisting.
Credit Suisse is one of the banks that has emerged from the subprime situation with its balance sheet relatively unscathed and it may be hoping that the current environment will provide it with a competitive advantage to grow its financing portfolio.
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
