Deutsche Bank to name its first China head
Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 – news) will on Friday name its first country head for China, the latest senior hiring by the bank in recent weeks as it attempts to expand its Asian operations.
The bank (TBHS – news) has poached Betty Deng, Citigroup’s deputy chairman in China, a Harvard-educated banker, regarded as having strong links to the country’s state-controlled enterprises.
Ms Deng will report to Lee Zhang, the bank’s China chairman and regional head of global banking and be charged with developing the Deutsche Bank franchise in the country.
The bank’s footprint spans investment, retail and corporate banking, and private wealth and asset management.
It recently applied to incorporate its mainland operations, a move that will eventually allow it to offer banking products in local currency.
Ms Deng’s capture comes amid a hiring spree by Deutsche Bank in which it has recruited eight senior investment bankers and equity market specialists in Asia after losing ground advising on mergers.
The value of announced takeovers in the region reached a record $187bn in the first three months of the year.
However, Deutsche Bank has fallen from fourth in 2004 to seventh this year in advising on Asia-Pacific (002790.KS – news) acquisitions, dropping behind UBS (Virt-X: UBSN.VX – news) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS – news) in the rankings.
Last year, it was one of three international advisers to the record $21.9bn listing of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the mainland’s largest lender.
Among the hirings are Gordon Paterson, one of the region’s heaviest-hitting investment bankers, poached from Citigroup (NYSE: C – news) to be the bank’s Asia head of mergers and acquisitions.
Another star recruit is Angus Barker, who was lured away from UBS to head the bank’s financial sponsors unit.
Rival bankers say Deutsche Bank has managed to prise away staff only by guaranteeing some of the hirings multi-million dollar contracts and that the bank faced huge losses if it failed to win new business.
However, Mr Zhang said: “The build-up of senior banking talent is an investment to take our franchise to the next level.”