J.P.M and Morgan Stanley analysts are quitting for this P.E. fund

If you haven't left your analyst job with an investment bank already, there's still plenty of time to do so. With many banks paying junior bonuses in the summer, analysts who pocketed their money several months ago are leaving for the buy-side even now.

Two of the most recent London departures have gone to the same place: ZZ Capital International, a Hong Kong-based corporate finance firm with a private equity fund attached.

Shuang Zheng, a second year analyst at J.P. Morgan in London, quit for ZZ in Hong Kong in October. Alessia Negri, a third year analyst on Morgan Stanley's consumer and retail investment banking team, quit for ZZ's London office this month. Both are working in ZZ's private equity investment arm. 

Aside from the opportunity to work in private equity, what's ZZ's appeal? The firm is seemingly building an investment management business, but it's still tiny. In the second quarter of 2016, the investment management division generated just HK1.6m ($210k) of revenues, compared to nothing in the same period a year earlier. Join now, and you'll get in on the ground.

ZZ also has the advantage of high profile management. Its CEO,  Michael Min Cho, was formerly head of Asian M&A at Merrill Lynch and head of M&A at the Qatar Investment Authority.

ZZ clearly likes to pick its private equity professionals from the M&A teams of banks. In June, it poached Jung Suh, a director in M&A at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong for its PE team. Nor does it seem averse to hiring juniors who've moved around: Zeng had only been at J.P. Morgan for nine months when he quit. Before that, he spent 16 months in M&A at Barclays.

Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com

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