Standard Chartered hires equity executives for Asia

Standard Chartered, the London- based bank that makes most of its money in emerging markets, added executives in equity sales and research to its expanding Asian operations.

Tim Andrew and David Murray, formerly of Deutsche Bank, will join Standard Chartered as global head of cash equities and global head of equities research respectively.

The appointments are the latest step in the lender’s plans to bolster its Asian operations. The bank completed the acquisition of Cazenove Asia from JPMorgan Cazenove in January to help it build an equity capital markets and institutional brokerage business.

“Having now got the figureheads, Standard Chartered can now build the platform,” said Andrew Sullivan, a sales trader at Mainfirst Securities Hong Kong Ltd. “They know the research side of the business very well. Having worked at Deutsche, they’ve obviously got a very good pedigree.”

Andrew and Murray will be based in Hong Kong and take their positions from December 21, the memo said. Andrew was previously head of Asia Pacific equities and fixed-income research at Deutsche Bank, while Murray was the German lender’s head of Asia Pacific company research.

Share sale
Some of the proceeds of a £1.02 billion ($1.6 billion) share sale announced in August will help Standard Chartered’s Asian expansion. The same month, the bank said it plans to hire about 850 relationship managers in Asia for a unit targeting wealthy individuals.

Andrew joins after 15 years with Deutsche Bank and will be responsible for sales, sales trading and dealing for Standard Chartered’s cash equities business, the memo said. Murray worked at Deutsche Bank for 14 years. Standard Chartered have “eventually managed to find someone to run their research,” said Sullivan, former head of Asian sales trading at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co in Hong Kong. “They’ve been interviewing for some time. The fact they’ve got somebody to do it is a good thing.”

The bank’s shares in Hong Kong have surged 99 per cent this year, compared with the benchmark Hang Seng Index’s 42 per cent advance. The bank’s UK shares rose 69 per cent.