IFR Asia - October 14, 2017

0EOPLE

&Markets

head of APAC. Watanabe also worked at

StanChart.

„ Foster Lee, head of syndicated finance at

CHINA MINSHENG BANKING CORP, is leaving to join a

property developer.

He will start work on Tuesday with the Hong

Kong-listed real-estate developer as chief

investment officer. In his new job, Lee will

oversee project financing and execution,

negotiate sale-and-purchase agreements and

joint ventures and also handle corporate finance

functions.

Today is his last day with China Minsheng. Lee

departs after five-and-a-half years with the

Chinese lender, during which he built up the

syndicated finance team to its present strength

of eight bankers. Under his stewardship,

China Minsheng played key roles in leveraged

financings, particularly related to buyouts of

overseas listed Chinese companies, such as

Focus Media Holding, Giant Interactive Group

and Belle International Holdings.

Before China Minsheng, Lee worked at DBS

Bank in Hong Kong and GE Capital in Sydney

and Hong Kong.

„ Shweta Singh has left RABOBANK as director of

capital markets in India after three and a half

years.

Before the Dutch bank, Singh had worked at GE

Capital for nine years where she was responsible

for capital markets in India, including sell-

downs of portfolio, as well as structuring and

origination of transactions from financial

institutions.

Singh is joining Suryoday Small Finance Bank

as senior vice president and head of financial

institutions group and digital banking.

She starts her new job in late October and will

stay based in Mumbai.

„ CAPITALAND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT, the

private equity fund management arm of

Singapore’s CapitaLand Group, has hired James

Lim as CEO.

Lim was formerly a head of real-estate finance

for Asia Pacific at HSBC. He left a couple of

months ago, after serving a three-year stint and

having set up HSBC’s real-estate financing team

in Hong Kong and Japan.

Lim will start at CLIM in Singapore on November

1 and report to CapitaLand president and group

CEO Lim Ming Yan.

In addition to its existing team, CLIM now

consolidates CapitaLand’s private-equity real-

estate funds.

IN BRIEF

Bank of Taiwan

Plan to open Frankfurt rep office

BANK OF TAIWAN plans to open a representative

office in Frankfurt, as it takes steps to brace for

Brexit and boost its presence in Europe.

As the plan is awaiting approvals from

regulators in Taiwan and Germany, the opening

date has yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, BoT has received permission from

Taiwan’s Financial Supervisory Commission to

open representative offices in Manila and San

Francisco’s Silicon Valley. It also plans to open

representative offices in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh

City and Jakarta.

The state-owned lender has overseas branches

in the US, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan,

the UK and South Africa.

China

FX reserves up for eighth time in row

China’s foreign-exchange reserves rose modestly

in September for the eighth straight month as

tighter regulations and a stronger renminbi

continued to discourage capital outflows.

The reserves rose US$17bn in September

to US$3.109trn, compared with a gain of

US$10.5bn in August.

Economists Reuters had polled expected an

increase of US$8bn.

It was the first time that China’s reserves have

climbed for eight consecutive months since June

2014 and brought its stockpile to the highest

level since October last year.

The consistent rise has led some analysts to

believe the People’s Bank of China may have

become a net buyer of forex for the first time in

nearly two years.

The country’s outbound non-financial

investment (ODI) slumped 41.8% in January–

August from a year earlier, as authorities kept

a tight grip on outflows for what they call

“irrational” overseas projects.

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