TMT is the place to be in Asia. So says JPMorgan’s global chairman for telecoms, media and telecommunications investment banking, Jennifer Nason, who thinks it’s the best location for big deal-makers currently.
“I spend more time in Asia facing clients than I do in other parts of the world, apart from the US,” she said during an interview with Finance Asia. Asian TMT deals are up fourfold on last year and account for around a fifth of investment banking fees in the region. So far this year, they’ve racked up $1.5bn.
JPMorgan says that it has seen revenues rise by 50% this year, and has increased its headcount by 25% as a result. The bad news is that Mason says most of these hires have already been made, but there are a “couple” more people to recruit still.
JPMorgan is unlikely to be alone in hiring TMT bankers to capitalise on the uptick in revenues and the trend runs in parallel with a need recruit more M&A bankers generall. Foreign banks in particular, struggling to wrestle business away from the domestic institutions in China, are looking to bolster headcount. Recruiters expect this to continue in 2015.
Meanwhile:
China now has 10 ‘bad banks’ to help clean up debt in the country (SCMP)
‘Bumper’ pay rises at the Bank of Japan – the governor gets his first pay rise for nine years, other board members receive 1.9% uplifts (Bloomberg)
Singaporeans need to embrace experimentation and give up their fear of failure (Straits Times)