Archives April 2010

Foxconn to hire in China

EMS-giant Foxconn is said to hire for its PC manufacturing factory in the Chongqing Xiyong Microelectronic Industrial Park in China.

EMS Foxconn is reportedly set to hire a further 6’000 staff over the next half year for the facility, with plans to reach a total work force of about 10’000 next year, reports CENS.

The EMS-provider currently employs around 1’000 staff at the Chongqing facility, which manufactures PC for various customers. The company aims for an annual production output of 10 million notebook.

Chinese wealth management: a hiring boom waiting to happen?

Raymond Ma

It seems that every foreign bank wants to be top dog in China’s wealth management sector – and for good reason. When Forbes magazine published its list of the richest people in the world earlier this month, it singled out China for mention because it was the first year in which the country had the most number of billionaires outside the US.

“China is currently considered the most attractive wealth management market in Asia for international banks. The country has experienced very fast growth for an extended period, and this has helped to create a whole new generation of wealthy individuals,” says Harry Senlitonga, a senior analyst at research firm Datamonitor.

The most active foreign recruiters in China’s wealth management sector include UBS, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Citi, according to a private banking headhunter who asked not to be named.

An increasing number of roles advising clients in China are expected to be based in Shanghai, rather than Hong Kong, which has traditionally been the hub for China-focussed relationship managers, adds the recruiter.

But while mainland vacancy volumes in wealth management are rising, the massive potential of this sector is yet to translate into a full scale talent war.

“I think recruitment for relationship manager roles has picked up slightly since the second half of 2009, but they are still nowhere near what I would call aggressive,” comments Cherol Cheuk, director of banking at recruitment firm Hudson.

Much of China’s wealth was created relatively recently, so the private banking industry is still undeveloped. Many rich individuals are unaware of wealth management models and/or unwilling to pay a professional advisor to help them invest their funds.

It is also difficult for banks to find the talent they need to expand their wealth management businesses on the mainland, adds Cheuk. Firms favour Chinese candidates who have strong relationships with small and medium business owners and entrepreneurs.

More Western MBA Graduates Head For Hong Kong For Job Prospect

HONG KONG, April 1 (Bernama) — More graduates of top business schools in Europe and the United States are turning to Hong Kong in search of work as Western countries struggle to emerge from the economic crisis, a school director said here Thursday.

In the past, New York and London were considered to be the cities of choice for top-notch MBA graduates.

But, since job markets in the West have slid downhill, the positive outlook for Asia — with China as the region’s economic growth engine — has recently drawn more graduates to Hong Kong, an Associate Director at London Business School’s career services recruitment team Richard Bland said.

He said dozens of graduates of London Business School, widely considered to be among the global top-five business schools, visited Hong Kong this week for unofficials meetings with figures at major financial institutions here, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reports.

Bland was in Hong Kong, arranging the meetings between the graduates and the eight financial institutions, which included Citigroup Inc.

Speaking to reporters, he said many students are starting to turn their attention to Asia, as it has rebounded rapidly from the financial crisis.

“Hong Kong has advantages over Shanghai or Beijing, as its sound financial system integrates China with the rest of the world,” he added.

China Career Update: it’s musical chairs time for mainland i-bankers

Raymond Ma

Welcome to the first of our weekly updates on the financial services job market in China.

It’s again that time of year when the most frantic job switching among front-office investment bankers takes place, and this is the case in China as much as anywhere else in the Asia.

Recent high-level mainland moves include HSBC’s appointment of Jane Wang – previously vice chairman for China investment banking at Nomura – as China chairman for corporate finance.

Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch has reportedly hired former Goldman Sachs Beijing executive director Edmund Sim as its new director of China equity capital markets. Finally, Lee Zhang, China head at Deutsche Bank, has reportedly resigned from his current post to take up a senior role at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

“This is the musical chairs season,” comments CK Wan, a senior client partner at search firm Korn/Ferry International. He says with most firms typically paying bonuses between January and March, bankers – who are unhappy with their jobs or are being lured away by competitors – are making a beeline for the door.

Poor capital markets have suppressed job-hoping activity in the last two years – in China as in most parts of the world – resulting in pent-up demand among bankers to move once there is an opportunity, says Richie Holliday, managing director for recruitment firm Morgan McKinley in Hong Kong.

“The volume of jobs we are aware of has increased hugely in the last 12 months, and most of that actually happened in the last quarter,” he adds.

Holliday expects investment banking vacancies to spike later this year, before settling back to more steady levels. All this bodes well for i-banking candidates – if they seize the moment.

“It means if you are an associate vice president somewhere, there is going to be an opportunity for you to make vice president quicker. It will mean a larger remit and broader responsibilities, which you would have had to work longer for a couple of years ago, or a couple of years hence,” says Holliday.

Compared with last year, when talent in China was snapped up by boutique and local investment banks, much of the hiring will be done by large multinational banks that are seeking to rebuild their revenue streams in Asia., he adds. Sales, trading and advisory roles will be most in demand this year.

Korn/Ferry’s Wan, who expects the current round of movement in investment banking to continue for another two months, adds that firms are on the lookout for bankers with deal origination and execution skill sets.