Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia (CLSA) CEO, Jonathan Slone, spent almost his entire career of 30 years at the firm. Recently, he decided, together with other top executives, including the company's chief operating officer Nigel Beattie, to leave the firm. Founded in Hong Kong in 1986, today CLSA can count 20 offices across the globe and runs a business whose core is in equity brokerage, corporate finance and capital markets and, finally, asset management.
Back to 2012, an underperforming Hong Kong brokerage CLSA was acquired by CITIC Securities, the largest Chinese investment bank, from Crédit Agricole for a price of US$1.25 billion. For CITIC, established in 1979 under the direction of Deng Xiaoping and pioneer of China's experimental capitalism, the move represented a demonstration of the willingness to expand its business internationally.
The departures from CLSA mentioned above show an increasing cultural conflict between the Western investment bank and China's state-owned financial groups. There is a long-standing dissatisfaction on both sides, on an institutional and personal ground. CLSA employees lament having been given by their parent company CITIC Securities Beijing's key tasks, which include recovering CITIC Group's troubled businesses, such as its subsidiary CEFC, subject of a bribery scandal last year. On the other hand, CITIC Securities believes that Hong Kong bankers are too costly: two years ago, CLSA already decided to close down its US stock business and cut 90 jobs.
When acquiring CLSA, CITIC Securities was headed by Wang Dongming, a visionary whose ambition was to build an international platform comparable to the one owned by major Western investment banks. However, in 2015, affected by the turmoil in the Shanghai stock market, he was forced to step down. His successor, Zhang Youjun, is a more domestic-oriented bureaucrat and senior executives at CLSA believe he lacks a vision for international business.
While Beijing is imposing a strict tightening policy, MSCI and other major government bond indices increased the weight of China. As a consequence, most analysts now predict a strong rise in the flow of funds from oversea investors. Besides the scope of workforce movement, the general trend has dragged both sides down to the point of direct conflict and any change happening now would be regarded as a clash of different civilizations.
Margaery Qi
Back to 2012, an underperforming Hong Kong brokerage CLSA was acquired by CITIC Securities, the largest Chinese investment bank, from Crédit Agricole for a price of US$1.25 billion. For CITIC, established in 1979 under the direction of Deng Xiaoping and pioneer of China's experimental capitalism, the move represented a demonstration of the willingness to expand its business internationally.
The departures from CLSA mentioned above show an increasing cultural conflict between the Western investment bank and China's state-owned financial groups. There is a long-standing dissatisfaction on both sides, on an institutional and personal ground. CLSA employees lament having been given by their parent company CITIC Securities Beijing's key tasks, which include recovering CITIC Group's troubled businesses, such as its subsidiary CEFC, subject of a bribery scandal last year. On the other hand, CITIC Securities believes that Hong Kong bankers are too costly: two years ago, CLSA already decided to close down its US stock business and cut 90 jobs.
When acquiring CLSA, CITIC Securities was headed by Wang Dongming, a visionary whose ambition was to build an international platform comparable to the one owned by major Western investment banks. However, in 2015, affected by the turmoil in the Shanghai stock market, he was forced to step down. His successor, Zhang Youjun, is a more domestic-oriented bureaucrat and senior executives at CLSA believe he lacks a vision for international business.
While Beijing is imposing a strict tightening policy, MSCI and other major government bond indices increased the weight of China. As a consequence, most analysts now predict a strong rise in the flow of funds from oversea investors. Besides the scope of workforce movement, the general trend has dragged both sides down to the point of direct conflict and any change happening now would be regarded as a clash of different civilizations.
Margaery Qi