Nomura appointments firm up Asian equities capabilities

Japanese securities firm Nomura has been busy recruiting and promoting 21 key members of staff in a bid to boost its Asian Equities business.

Mark Simpson is the new regional Head of Equity Research based in Hong Kong, while Stephen Hunt, based in Hong Kong, and Takeshi Imatoki, Singapore, have been appointed joint Heads of Global Sales.

Arthur Lo will join Nomura from DLJ where he oversaw their Taiwan operations. In his new role he takes on the mantle of Head of Taiwan and China Equity.

Andrew Chen, formerly of ING Baring, becomes Head of Taiwan Research at the beginning of 2001, while at the sectoral level Rick Hsu will cover the semiconductor industry.

In Korea, Yong Han joins from Labinvest Associates. Yong has extensive experience of the Korean market and he will be focusing on the retail and consumer sectors.

Nomura has also made key internal appointments with new sectoral heads to compliment the work of existing heads Anthony Lok in regional banking, and Adam Clarke in regional energy. Shailesh Jaitly is promoted to Head of Regional Technology, and Bradley Burch will be responsible for both Aviation and Media sectors - both will be based in Singapore. Richard Ferguson and Gillen Tulloch are appointed joint Regional Heads of Telecom.

In sales and sales trading, Stacy Wang joins as a sales trader, from DLJ. In Korea, Paul Prestler also on the sales team, will report to the new Head of Korean Sales, David Cotterchio. Gary Hall and Robert Ng will report to Nomura's new Head of Sales in Singapore, Gavin Tan. Nomura also announced that Andrew Bird has been promoted to Head of Sales for Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, and Kevin Pereira has been promoted to Head of South East Asian Sales Trading.  Both will be based in Singapore.

Commenting on these new hires and promotions, Haruki Matsushita, Executive Managing Director and Head of Asian Equities, said: "We are delighted that in this very competitive environment we have succeed in hiring such first rate players to join us.

"Nomura remains totally committed to growing and developing our Asian equities business, and I am confident that with these new appointments we are now well placed to take the business forward."