As per news reports, Investment banks are boosting their technology hiring in Southeast Asia and India as the region’s fast-growing consumer internet markets catch up with their peers, pushing deals to new heights.
Global lenders Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. have created new senior roles, while regional and boutique players are staffing up to capture a surge of activity in mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings.
Anand Menon, Managing Director of Executive Principles, a head-hunting firm in India, said, “ Every single investment bank is looking to hire technology, media and telecommunications bankers. TMT is an animal producing multiple babies. We need new-age bankers who think like entrepreneurs to cover them with the same speed as these startups.”
Technology-focused investment bankers in Asia previously focused on larger and more developed markets such as Japan and South Korea, and more recently, China. Galvanized by the coronavirus pandemic’s boost to e-commerce and remote working, financiers are jockeying to work with startups as they open up markets with a combined population of about 2 billion.
In Southeast Asia, Citigroup created a new managing director role to oversee TMT, Bloomberg News has reported. BDA Partners Inc., BNP Paribas SA, and Malayan Banking Bhd. are among the other banks that have recently made or are making sector hires in the region.
Consolidation of regional leaders is already taking place. Ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek agreed to combine with e-commerce pioneer PT Tokopedia in May to create the largest internet company in Indonesia. Next stop is the capital markets, where the combined firm is considering mopping up as much as $2 billion from listings at home and in the U.S. at a valuation of about $30 billion.
Consumer-oriented firms have led the first wave of listings. Indonesian online marketplace PT Bukalapak.com raised $1.5 billion in August, while food ordering platform Zomato Ltd. has mobilized $1.3 billion from its Indian IPO.
