ABN Amro bolsters equities franchise in Hong Kong

Dutch bank ABN Amro has boosted its equities franchise in the Asia-Pacific region with a series of appointments in sales, trading and research in Hong Kong.

John Stimpson has been hired for the bank’s hedge fund team as a regional sales trader. He joins from Morgan Stanley, where he worked for eight years in Japan, Hong Kong and New York. At the Dutch bank, he will report to Alastair Barr, head of equities in Asia and Australia/New Zealand, and Mark Hendel, head of Asian sales trading.

Neil McCann joins the convertible bond department as head of Asian convertible bond trading, reporting to David Roberts, global head of Asian equity derivatives. Previously, McCann was a director for Merrill Lynch in Japan.

Meanwhile, Leo Li has joined as co-head of the regional technology research, working alongside MS Hwang, and reporting directly to Michael Baptista, regional head of research.

Matthew Chan takes on coverage of the Hong Kong/China mid-cap electronics sector while Pierre Lau joins the bank as an analyst, covering China’s power, gas and expressway companies. Lau will report to Michele Mak, head of China research. Thomas Yu has been hired as an analyst covering regional telecoms research, reporting to Helen Zhu and Manish Srivastava, co-heads of regional telecoms research.

In addition, Daniel Gordon was appointed head of Asian cash equity trading and will represent trading on the bank’s Asian equity management committee.

Danny Gilbert, head of Asian production, will take full responsibility for the Asian research production team and for Asia’s involvement and use of the bank’s global production network. He will report to Sophie Bridge, global head of research production, and locally to Michael Baptista, regional head of research. Warren Blight was promoted to head of Asian financials research and is responsible for the development of deeper client relationships and client penetration.