Recruiting in China

Investment banks are moving to increase headcount in China and India in anticipation of rising deal flows fuelled by strong growth rates in Asia's largest developing economies.

Banks had scaled back staffing across Asia amid a dearth of merger and acquisition activity, and stagnant capital markets.

But investment banks and headhunters report renewed interest in recruiting for senior positions as confidence mounts of inc-reasing demand for services in main regional markets.

The Chinese economy is expected to grow by about 8 per cent in 2009, while India said this week its economy grew 6.1 per cent in the June quarter from a year earlier.

The strengthening econ-omic backdrop has prompted a flurry of capital raisings to help fund expansion plans. Bankers in Shanghai and Hong Kong predict a further $30bn of equity issuance this year.

According to Dealogic, corporate equity and debt issuance in India has confounded expectations, topping $26.6bn - more than in the same period last year.

Vikram Malhotra, Credit Suisse co-head of Asia investment banking, said that the bank had moved to boost headcount in such areas as financial institutions and energy. "As the momentum in the markets has continued, we have increased capacity to meet increasing demand from clients and investors, adding more execution strength as deal flow builds," he said.

Among the bank's recent hires are Simon Yuan, who quit Merrill Lynch to co-head its greater China financial institutions coverage. Goldman Sachs is expected soon to announce senior hires in Mumbai and Beijing.

Gokul Laroia, co-head of investment banking for Morgan Stanley in Asia, said the bank had made selective senior hires on the back of rising deal activity.

Other banks have moved to reallocate senior staff from other regions to Asia, given the relative opportunities, while some are reassigning executives to new positions in China as they seek to expand their mainland platform. JPMorgan recently moved Frank Gong, chief China economist, to an investment banking role.

Another feature is the move to create senior positions in Hong Kong, to oversee China and India from banks' regional headquarters.

Morgan Stanley last month hired Ronan McCullough from Goldman Sachs to head its bond and loan syndicate for Asia Pacific.