UBS plans to aggressively expand its China operations in the next 12 to 18 months as competition heats up in one of the world's fastest growing securities markets, a senior executive said.
UBS aims to more than treble its China research team "from 20 to 30 people, which is now a typical scale for a western bank in China, to in excess of 100 people" during the period, Nicole Yuen, managing director and head of China equities at UBS, told Reuters.
"It is a plan that we have. Of course, it depends on the market situation and whether we can get the talent we want. But the goal is to achieve that within 12 to 18 months," said Yuen.
"Of course we will develop other aspects of the team, on the sales team and so on, in sync with the development in the research team," she said.
Earlier this month, the Chinese securities regulator approved the joint ventures of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley, enabling the two to underwrite stocks and bonds in China.
But the two banks will have to wait another few more years before their joint ventures are able to start the more lucrative broking operations on the secondary market.
UBS remains one of few international investment banks that are able to conduct business on both the primary and the secondary markets, Yuen said.
"There is still a substantial time lag before the next investment bank will be granted a secondary market licence," said Yuen.
"This is part of the reason why we are very keen to develop our business before the international competition sets in," she added.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.