Simon Page will relocate to Singapore to head up a new Southeast Asia debt capital markets team at J.P. Morgan, according to an internal memo sent out on Friday. Page, who is currently based in Hong Kong, will retain his present role as head of Asia ex-Japan high-yield and sovereign business, alongside Luke Garner, who is also a co-head of high-yield for Asia ex-Japan and based in Hong Kong.
According to a source, the move is part of the bank’s efforts to add more senior resources to focus on the Southeast Asia business. “Over the next few months, we will make additional resource commitments to this new team,” said Murli Maiya, head of debt capital markets for Asia ex-Japan in the internal memo.
“Southeast Asia represents in aggregate one of the most exciting growth areas for the DCM business, and Simon is already well regarded amongst a wide variety of clients in the region,” said Maiya in the memo. “He has led the revival of our sovereign business — a large recent contributor to our market share gains — and has been influential in building critical, revenue-generating client relationships in the high-yield space.”
Page will continue to report to Maiya but will also have an additional reporting line to Mark Follett, head of high-grade debt capital markets for Asia ex-Japan, to ensure efficient coordination for investment grade clients in Southeast Asia. Page has previously worked on transactions for the Philippines and Indonesian sovereigns, Berau Coal and MMI.
The volume of deals out of Southeast Asia has risen this year. According to Dealogic, the total dollar bonds issued by Southeast Asian borrowers year-to-date is $38.5 billion, up by 55% from the $24.7 billion raised during the whole of 2011 and also higher compared to the $26 billion raised in 2010.
Elsewhere, Russell Baines, previously a director in debt capital markets at BNP Paribas, left the bank this week, according to a source. It is unclear where Baines, who was based in Singapore and who covered Southeast Asia, is headed, though it is understood that he has not joined J.P. Morgan. A BNP Paribas spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter.
