Morgan Stanley plans to trim about 15 percent of its investment banking positions in Asia as it starts a round of job cuts this week, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Asian Managing Directors Saul Raccah and Leon Guo are among investment bankers who will leave the New York-based firm, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Xu Li, a Beijing-based spokeswoman, declined to comment.
The job cuts in Asia investment banking will be deeper than the 6 percent reduction to be made across the broader institutional securities group, which includes fixed-income and equity sales and trading, research and investment banking, one of the people said.
Raccah, based in Hong Kong, is Asia-Pacific head of oil and gas on the investment banking team, while Guo is managing director for real estate, focusing on China. Another managing director, Zhang Jianyong, who primarily advised power and utility clients in China, has already left, the people said.
Raccah and Zhang declined to comment, and Guo didn’t return three calls to his mobile phone.
Globally, Morgan Stanley is eliminating about 1,600 jobs from its investment bank and support staff in coming weeks, with half the reductions in the U.S., a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Jan. 9. The cuts will total about 6 percent of the global institutional securities group, the person said.
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