Hong Kong : Morgan Stanley plans to double its number of private bankers in Asia over the next three years, while Chief Executive Officer James Gorman aims to boost profits from the global wealth management unit over which he'd previously presided.
The company plans to hire almost 100 bankers in the region this year, Charles Mak, head of Private Wealth Management for Asia, said. It also appointed Nick Chan, an ex-Goldman Sachs Group banker, who was running New York-based Morgan Stanley's Indonesian private bank, to a newly-created recruiting and staff development role for Mak's group this year.
"This will be our most aggressive expansion in the private wealth space in Asia," Mak said. "This region has the best economic growth, the highest levels of wealth creation, and many players are coming to this part of the world, or are expanding."
The bank is competing with rivals including UBS AG, Citigroup, Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group to hire financial advisers in a market with an estimated $7.4 trillion of private riches.
Growth in the region's wealth will outstrip the global average as its economies outperform, Capgemini SA and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management said in October.
Morgan Stanley provides services for the so-called ultra-high net worth segment in Asia, aiming to attract clients who have at least $10 million (Dh36.7 million) in wealth. In India and Australia, it also targets people with $1 million (Dh3.67 million) or more. Global operations
Morgan Stanley also announced yesterday that its Asia chairman Stephen Roach will be relocating to New York from Hong Kong and will become its non-executive chairman for Asia. The move will take effect on July 1.
Pretax profit for Morgan Stanley's global-wealth management unit more than doubled to $278 million for the first quarter. The company paid $2.75 billion in cash in June 2009 to create the world's largest brokerage by gaining control of Citigroup's Smith Barney and the biggest US team of financial advisers.
Gorman, who led the brokerage before succeeding John Mack at the helm of Morgan Stanley in January, in a letter to shareholders in April, said the joint venture would play, "an increasingly important role in our growth and profitability."
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney President Charles Johnston said the venture may expand outside the US because those markets are set to grow