Crédit Lyonnais set to offer prime brokerage in Asia-Pacific

CLSA, the emerging markets arm of French bank Crédit Lyonnais, plans to offer prime brokerage services in the Asia-Pacific region to cater for an anticipated growth of the hedge fund market in the region, according to Sheldon Lee, CLSA head of hedge fund sales in Hong Kong.

“In the last two to three years most of the hedge fund growth has been in Europe and the US, but now you are seeing the start of growth in Asia," said Lee.

CLSA is looking at offering prime brokerage services to small hedge funds with strong growth potential, leaving the larger hedge funds to be serviced by big US investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which already have a strong hold on the prime brokerage business, said Lee.

Lee joined the French bank in March this year from ABN Amro, where he established the hedge fund sales team in Asia. He brought over Michael Li and Patrick Hugh from his old team at the Dutch bank to provide technical trading strategies. CLSA has also hired Rikki Malik, a fund manager who began his career at Pacific Group, later working with CDIB Venture Investment and Crosby Asset Management. Malik started at the bank this week, and will focus on the Japanese and Australian markets, although he is based in London.