Bloomberg headline is saying Hong Kong has lost its prestige and lustre as the financial district of Asia. But we still have Singapore so logically there is currently a mass exodus of HK bankers to SG after the layoffs. Can any HK bankers give insights into how bad things are currently in HK? Is Singapore the "only" place to be right now in Asia for high finance professionals?
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How competitive are the seats in SG right now for foreigners? I just joined a new firm so I am not looking to relocate.
i'm not sure why the mod team removed my comment (at the very least they could give me the reason why so i will know what to not post next time? thought it was generally innocuous)
think lateral market is pretty quiet now around the world. I'm not in SG.
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Singapore is also bleak lol (better than HK but that's not saying much). The AeJ capital markets industry had traditionally been 60% China + ~10% each for India/Australia/SEA/Others for the BBs (China's share even higher for WM / if you add the Chinese firms like CICC).
The China business is down more than half but most other regions AeJ are NOT doing better than their long-term average in terms of capital markets activities. India is growing but far from filling the hole left by shrinking China activities. This means that all the Asia heads (whether they sit in HK or SG or Sydney) at every international bank are grappling with ~30% of their business disappearing overnight. There will be cuts everywhere, not just HK.
More importantly, the whole region is very reliant on Chinese demand for growth and has been for more than 2 decades. Macro weakness is not just contained to China (if you talk to investors covering SEA this is a huge concern on everyone's mind) and it is very hard for institutions to justify deploying capital in the region under this environment. We will see how long it takes for macro contagions to spread to India but it will likely not be immune either.
Honestly, I think the new securities laws, and China/HKs treatment of businesses under Xi’s new crackdowns, is a far greater headwind than any macro issues. When you have talking heads on Bloomberg refer to China as “uninvestable”, that to me is writing on the wall
my point too, can already imagine hands all over the place from govt restricting growth
Check the Bloomberg article on hk investment banking professionals titled “Hong Kong’s Formerly High-Flying Bankers Become Lost Generation”. As someone who is still struggling in this industry, can say this article paints a true picture…
Back then business was good but exits for IBD have generally been shit. Few can make it to L/S HF (more like 1 in 100) and MF PE (more common but still few). Many non-MF PE either pay peanuts / pay peanuts and don't consider IBD people. Corp dev exit is almost non-existent except for a handful that pays ok.
Now the exit pipeline has dried up so there is no option for laid off bankers while you have dozens of employees being fired every month.
Hi Analyst 3+ in IBD,
If you don't mind, could you DM me or comment below on examples of exits that your colleagues have taken? (title/company/comp)
Just wanted to get some info on the quality of HK exits.
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