Barclays today announced the appointment of Carrie Chen and Raymond Yu (pictured) as co-heads of the bank’s Investment Banking division for Greater China.
Effective immediately, the shared leadership role adds to Chen and Yu’s current responsibilities: Chen’s capacity as vice chairperson of Investment Banking for Greater China, and Yu’s leadership of Power and Utilities across Asia Pacific, as well as his role as head of Real Estate, for China.
The pair succeed Vanessa Koo who had been serving in a dual role as head of Investment Banking for Greater China, as well as Asia Pacific, since 2019. As co-heads, Chen and Yu will report directly to Koo from their current base in Hong Kong, enabling her to maintain her role as Asia Pacific investment banking leader and to dedicate her focus to driving strategic growth for the Asian franchise.
A spokesperson for the bank confirmed with FinanceAsia that Barclays’ current China business model serves Chinese clients with a focus on their cross-border needs and identify opportunities within Asia Pacific, as well as in the US, UK and Europe.
In terms of investment banking, “we are focussed on providing Chinese clients with offshore capital markets access to the US and London in both debt and equity, with risk management solutions for rates and FX, as well as advising on cross-border M&A,” she added.
The bank is continuing the expansion of its China capabilities. In October, it appointed Angela Liu as country CEO for China, a 17-year Morgan Stanley veteran, who works closely with regional business heads and Shanghai branch manager, Grace Kuo.
Having joined Barclays in 2020, Chen has built “an impressive track record in Advisory and Capital Markets transactions for blue-chip Chinese clients across a broad range of sectors”, and having worked at the bank since 2009, Yu “has been a trusted strategic advisor to many distinguished mainland Chinese and Hong Kong conglomerates and clients”, according to the announcement.
In the release, Koo shared, “Both Carrie and Raymond are seasoned bankers with a proven and consistent track record in Greater China deal-making, coupled with their strong leadership experience and complementary backgrounds. It gives me great pleasure to elevate top talent and to appoint them as my successor to lead Greater China Investment Banking.”
