Bear Stearns raids Merrill in Asia

Bear Stearns has poached three staff from rival Merrill Lynch in Asia to bolster its local equity derivatives business.

The raid is the third on Merrill's equity derivatives business in the past 12 months. Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, poached 13 from Merrill in July last year and a further seven in December.

Edward Ho, Merrill's former head of equity-linked investment product distribution in Hong Kong has joined Bear Stearns as senior managing director and head of structured equity products sales in Asia, excluding Japan.

In his new position he will be responsible for spearheading Bear Stearns' structuring and distribution capabilities locally and will report jointly to Leonard Feder, head of derivatives for Asia, and Don Martocchio, global head of structured equity product sales.

Joseph Chan, former head of Merrill's Taiwan coverage, has joined Bear Stearns as managing director of Asian structured equity products, reporting to Ho.

A third equity derivatives specialist is understood to be leaving Merrill to join the Bear Stearns team at associate level.

In June last year Michel Péretié, head of Bear Stearns International, the London-based arm of the US bank, said the group wanted to develop its businesses in Europe and Asia. He said the initiative would target structured finance, credit and interest rate derivatives, equity derivatives and equity capital markets.

Merrill Lynch was unavailable for comment.