Investment are boosting their technology hiring in Southeast Asia and India as the region's new consumers market catch up with their peers, pushing new deals to new heights.
Global lenders Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. have created new senior roles, while regional and boutique players are staffing up to capture a surge of activity in mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings.
Every single investment bank is looking to hire technology, media and telecommunications bankers, said Anand Menon, managing director of Executive Principles, a head-hunting firm in India. TMT is an animal that produces multiple babies. We need new-age bankers who think like entrepreneurs to cover them with the same speed as these startups. Technology-focused in Asia previous focused on larger and more developed markets like Japan and South Korea, and more recently China. Galvanized by the coronavirus pandemic's boost to e-commerce and remote working, financiers are jockeying to work with startups as they open up markets with a combined population of about 2 billion.
In Southeast Asia, Citigroup created a new director role to oversee TMT, Bloomberg News reported. BDA Partners Inc. BNP Paribas SA and Malayan Banking Bhd. among the other making recent or making sector hires in the region, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters.
Barclays's executive director of investment banking at Baxter says the firm is beefing up its team in Mumbai by adding a senior post. JPMorgan Chase Co. is hiring a TMT banker to executive director level, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Representatives for JPMorgan declined to comment on BNP Paribas and BNP Paribas. A representative of BDA Partners said the firm is active in India and Southeast Asia Technology Invest Banking and will continue to hire in the space. Rajiv Vijendran, regional director of investment banking at the Maybank Kim Eng Group in Singapore, said the bank is constantly looking for new areas to grow the business, including TMT.
Ashish Kehair, chief executive officer at India s Edelweiss Wealth Management, said its investment banking unit is hiring three to five bankers with technology expertise. Now that digital and technology has multiplier effect, it said, 'Majority effects now.
The bankers will have their hands full. Technology, telecommunications and media deals announced in South and Southeast Asia are at a record $93 billion this year, nearly double the same period of last year according to Bloomberg data compiled by Bloomberg.
Consolidation of regional leaders is already taking place. Ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek agreed to combine with the PT Tokopedia, the E-commerce pioneer in May to create the largest internet company in Indonesia. Next stop is the capital markets, where the combined firm is considering mopping up as much as $2 billion from listings at home and in the U.S. at a valuation of about $30 billion, Bloomberg News reported in July.
Tech startup firms in Southeast Asia and India are maturing in terms of scale and size, with many starting unicorns and some ready to go public via direct listings or mergers with blank check firms said Jwalant Nanavati, head of TMT for Asia ex-Japan at Nomura Holdings Inc. In April, Bloomberg News hired an executive director in Singapore to focus on TMT, the Japanese bank reported.
The pandemic provided strong tail winds in terms of faster adoption by consumers of online business models, said Jeff Acton, a Tokyo-based partner at boutique investment bank BDA Partners. Southeast Asia's tech ecosystem is relatively younger, but many first generation tech companies suddenly saw an increase in demand. Consumer-oriented firms are the first wave of listings. The Indian online marketplace PT Bukalapak.com raised $1 billion in August, while food ordering platform Zomato Ltd. raised $1.3 billion from its Indonesian IPO.
The consumer market in these regions continues to reach critical mass and continues to show very robust growth, which has supercharged the leading companies across the region, said James Perry, managing director and co-head of Asia Pacific technology investment banking at Citigroup. Disruption is still a major theme and investors are keen to invest in these opportunities. Bankers said China s sweeping crackdown on its tech giants has benefited other countries in the region, as potential acquirers such as special purpose acquisition companies have lately shunned its startups.
Investors are waiting for greater clarity around the regulatory issues in China, said Maybank - Vijendran. The China crackdown hat focused the attention of major players and US SPACs on ASEAN startups, he said.
We expect investors to allocate an increasing proportion into Southeast Asia with BDA s Acton adding China will still remain a major destination for capital.
Though Asia's biggest economy has seen some dislocation this year because of Beijing s policy actions, deal activity is set to return over time as that market continues to create new exciting companies, said Citigroup s Perry.
Valuation uptick in digitech is playing across all companies, Barclays s Kumar said. This is a traditional trend driven by the convergence of technology and secular sectors and that will continue to be.