By Saeed Azhar and Lawrence White
SINGAPORE/HONG KONG, July 13 (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs
has named Steven Barg as co-head of investment banking
for Southeast Asia, moving the high-profile equity capital
markets banker from Hong Kong to a region where deal activity is
booming.
Barg, who was co-head of equity capital markets in Asia
excluding Japan, will relocate to Singapore and join Hsin Yue
Yong in the investment banking role, according to a memo seen by
Reuters and confirmed by Goldman.
The move allows Goldman to position Barg in a role where he
will continue to source equities deals but also oversee the
firm’s attempts to grow its Southeast Asia business as a whole.
Goldman is among the banks that have benefited from the
surge in capital market activity in Malaysia, which saw two of
the world’s three biggest initial public offerings this year,
but senior sources at the bank concede that Goldman could have
done better, a situation Berg’s deployment is intended to
remedy.
Goldman was a bookrunner on IHH Healthcare Bhd’s
$2 billion dual IPO in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and is a lead
adviser on Malaysian pay TV operator Astro All Asia Networks’
planned IPO in September that could raise as much as $1.5
billion.
Barg, 50, left UBS in May 2010 to join Goldman Sachs as
co-head of equity capital markets in Asia alongside Jonathan
Penkin. Goldman sweetened its offer to Barg by allowing him to
join the firm as a partner, a status conferring added pay
incentives and increased likelihood of a top job at the firm.
At UBS Barg presided over the firm’s rise to become the
region’s top equities house by volume, as the Swiss bank’s
extensive sales and research platform and its legions of private
bankers passing on clients as potential IPO leads meant UBS
topped ECM revenue tables for the region.
Barg himself was seen by UBS insiders as key to this
success, alongside the China rainmaker Henry Cai who sourced
many of the firm’s mainland deals and who also subsequently left
the firm.
Brooks Entwistle remains chairman of Southeast Asia and will
be able to focus more on this role with Barg taking on more deal
origination responsibilities.
