The US-based investment bank Jefferies Group LLC has appointed Jonathan Slone, the former chief executive officer of capital markets and investment group CLSA Ltd, as its new chairman for Asia.
Slone, who worked for over three decades in CLSA, will be based out of Hong Kong, Jefferies said in a statement.
In his new role as chairman for Asia, Slone will focus on Jefferies’s major investment banking and trading relationships across the Asia region.
“I am excited to be joining Jefferies at this time of considerable momentum in APAC (Asia-Pacific),” Slone said.
Peter Forlenza, Jefferies’s global head of equities, said Slone’s appointment represented a significant step for its Asia growth plans.
The investment bank has also hired two other CLSA executives along with Slone. Former managing director and chief strategist Christopher Wood will lead Jefferies’s global head of equity strategy while former head of microstrategy Desh Peramunetilleke will be the head of its microstrategy product division. The two will also be based out of Hong Kong.
The investment bank says it has also hired another 54 professionals across its sales, trading, investment banking and research divisions across Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
“The significant hires in recent weeks across our firm’s Asian platform represent the next stage of growth and commitment to our firm’s continued global expansion,” Jefferies CEO Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman said.
Established in 1962, Jefferies is a full-service firm that provides services ranging across several segments to its clients, including investment banking, sales and trading, research and wealth management.
The hires come after VCCircle reported in April that Jefferies India director Rohit Pareek had taken up a senior position at Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity arm of media house Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd.
Separately, Jefferies India vice-president Abinand Natarajan left the group to join global advisory firm Rothschild & Co as assistant director of technology.