Standard Chartered to restructure global M&A team to focus on target sectors, efficiency

“Our corporate and investment banking clients are increasingly asking us to support them on advisory work alongside cross-border risk management and financing,” the bank said in an emailed statement on Monday. “We are expanding our M&A capabilities, focusing on target sectors, and taking a forensic approach to drive greater efficiency in the business.”

Standard Chartered’s comments were in response to news reports on Monday that the UK lender will eliminate more than 20 roles globally, and double the M&A team to over 100 bankers, according to Reuters, which cited people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The lender is redeploying some of the roles from the industries team to other teams including the capital markets to avoid duplication, an exercise that would lead to some job losses, the report added.

The London-based lender did not confirm the job cuts and additions in its statement.

Deal volumes shrank 25 per cent in the first half of this year from a year earlier, according to industry data. In Asia, M&A advisory fees fell to an 11-year low, according to data compiled by the LSE Group. New stock offerings in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered’s single-largest profit centre, hit the lowest in two decades in the same period.

Standard Chartered, one of the three note-issuing banks in Hong Kong, derives 23 per cent of its operating income from the city and 35 per cent from other markets in Asia, according to its latest interim results.

That M&A team revamp comes after a round of changes in March to its corporate and investment banking coverage to streamline its business and set out clear accountabilities.

In that move, Roberto Hoornweg and Sunil Kaushal were appointed co-heads of corporate and investment banking, and each took on additional responsibility for different markets. The reorganisation eliminated the bank’s regional reporting matrix.