OREANDA-NEWS. August 02, 2011. BNP Paribas is delivering on its strategy to expand its product and client reach in Asia Pacific equities and derivatives, underscoring its position as a leading counterparty for institutional investors, reported the press-centre of BNP Paribas.

APAC Strategy – Building on Strong Foundations
2011 has seen BNP Paribas Global Equities and Commodity Derivatives (GECD) making significant progress in delivering on its core strategy across key areas of its business in Asia Pacific (APAC), consolidating its position amongst clients in the region as a true risk expert.

Over the past 6 months, BNP Paribas has made a significant number of key hires of senior professionals across its APAC platform in equity research, sales and trading functions, including the expansion of our global convertible bond offer. This has allowed the bank to broaden its product range, and deliver well-rounded risk expertise across multiple strategies employed by its institutional investment clients in a measured and balanced fashion.

As a leading derivatives house, BNP Paribas has one of the deepest volatility trading books in the region, coupled with a strong balance sheet, leading structured products capabilities, and significant regional knowledge. These factors enable GECD to measure and quantify market, financial and liquidity risk from an unrivalled viewpoint, providing clients with key insights and tools to effectively manage their portfolio risks.

Developing new business opportunities and strengthening key business areas Developing new business opportunities and strengthening key business areas

Equity Research
With a focus on consistently serving our clients, BNP Paribas has added strength to its equity research platform, recruiting a number of high calibre analysts, and consolidating its products around key strategic sectors (Agribusiness, Consumer, Commodities, Energy, Financials, Small Caps, Telecom, Media & Technology). BNP Paribas' expanded equity research team now covers over 600 companies in APAC.

In Research Management, Erwin Sanft is appointed Deputy Head of Regional Equity Research for the Asia Pacific region following seven years of success leading BNP Paribas' flagship China & HK equity research product. Richard Wainwright is appointed Head of Product Management Asia Pacific, and brings twenty years of experience in equity sales, research and product management in the region.

In China, we are pleased to announce that Dorris Chen is appointed Head of Equity Research for China after excelling as the leader of BNP Paribas' China Financials sector coverage for the past seven years. Ken Peng has joined the bank as a macroeconomist based in Beijing, adding to the highly-rated Macro & Strategy team which spans Asia Pacific and is renowned for its significant China experience and cutting-edge market analysis. Justin Liu and Gloria Wang have joined BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, covering the Healthcare and Small Cap sectors respectively.

In Singapore, BNP Paribas has added to its robust team of research analysts with Kang Ho Chong covering the property sector and Arnaud Bouchet joining the team to cover the Transportation sector. These new appointments serve to strengthen the Singapore platform as a regional hub, with dedicated resources in both Equity Research and Distribution.

In Japan, recently appointed Head of GECD for Japan, Kyoya Okazawa, has made a number of hires in the research team to build out the bank's leading research services to Japanese and Asian clients by providing analysis of Japanese stocks in relation to the broader Asian markets. Kunihiko Kanno joins the bank as Co-Head of Equity Research, Japan, and Precision Instruments and Imaging Analyst, from his previous role as a director and senior analyst covering the Precision Instruments and Printing industries at Credit Suisse. Kunihiko Co-Heads the Japan Equity Research Team alongside Emil Schillinger who has been with the bank since 2010. Recent additions to the team include Shun Maruyama as Chief Japan Equity Strategist and APAC Equity Quantitative Analyst, Koichi Sugimoto covering the Auto sector and Toyoki Sameshima covering the Bank sector. Daisuke Kibata also joins the team as a Japanese language editor, building out BNP Paribas' new Japanese language research product.

In Taiwan, recently appointed CEO of BNP Paribas Securities (Taiwan), Ken Chen, has strengthened his team, with Jim Hung joining the team as Head of Taiwan Research from Goldman Sachs, bringing sound industry experience and strength to the team in Taipei. Laura Chen has also joined the team as a Director, covering the entire handset food-chain sector, with Jenny Tsai joining from Morgan Stanley as an auto, cement, machinery and textile analyst, Charles Hsu covering the Display sector, and Ling Tang joining as our Taiwan Financials Analyst. BNP Paribas is confident that the new team will be one of the most competitive teams in the market.

In India Alok Dalal has joined the Indian Research team to cover the Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals sector.

Sales
In order to capitalise on the depth of the Asia Pacific research offering, the global equity sales group has undergone a major transformation with key hires in both the generalist and specialist country sales teams under the leadership of Stephen Carney, Global Head of Equity Sales, Asia Pacific. The changes have served to reinforce the existing sales force with key professionals who will be instrumental in broadening the client exposure to BNP Paribas' world class research, derivative and multi product platform.

The BNP Paribas' generalist sales desks benefit from the significant industry experience brought by the addition of Tom Hester and Jungim Park, both based in Hong Kong, Michael Han based in San Francisco, and Catherine Lou based in New York. Allie Eom also joins the generalist sales team in Hong Kong having transferred from BNP Paribas' US Asian Equity team.

A significant re-shaping of the country specialist sales team has seen the recent appointments of Franklin Fu and Jenny Chen (Hong Kong/China Sales), Jason Pyo (Korea Sales), Nikhil Garg and Rohit Bhattacharjee (India Sales) and Akira Iizuka and Ryunosuke Yamaguchi (Japan Sales). Daniel O'Shea joins the platform in Taipei to run the sales efforts for the Taiwan product.

On the Execution Sales desk, Douglas Butcher joins as Head of Execution Sales and Equity Execution in Japan, Chetan Mulani as Head of Execution Sales team India and Ted Wheeler as the Head of Execution Sales for ASEAN, based in Singapore. All these new hires are under the leadership of Dan Miller, Head of Execution Sales, Asia Pacific.

Trading
Facilitation is recognised as an increasingly important element of the client broker relationship. Greg Butterworth joins the team as Senior Trade Facilitator in Hong Kong to bringing sound expertise and knowledge to round out the team under Paul Saubestre, Head of Trading, Client Execution Platform, Asia & Japan, and bring the strong flow that BNP Paribas has in the region to the attention of clients in a proactive manner.

Convertible Bonds market making
Adding further value to clients' equity and derivatives risk management trading strategies, BNP Paribas is building out its Convertible Bonds (CB) desk on a global scale in a measured and strategically coherent fashion.

Denis O'Sullivan and Michael Ramsey join our Hong Kong team as market maker and CB sales respectively to add experience and new capacity for the bank's clients to express their trading preferences via convertibles, providing flexibility and liquidity to clients. This Asian expansion leverages on a key success in BNP Paribas' flow business, rounding off the global Convertible Bond offer with the ability to provide a trading book which ‘follows the sun'.

Commodities
Highlighting the core importance of Commodities for both the Bank and its clients, BNP Paribas announces the appointment of Mederic Gehl as Head of Commodity Investment for the Asia (ex Japan) region. Building on a team of commodity experts in Asia Pacific, Mederic brings to bear his strong experience in the region to spearhead the bank's commodity sales force, bringing BNP Paribas' clients new tools and access points to this key asset class.

A Market Leader
This significant list of new hires and internal promotions adds to BNP Paribas's impressive offering, and indicates the bank's commitment and dedication to fully develop its equity and derivatives platform bringing its clients a fuller, more balanced service across key areas of its business.