UBS' head of ESG advisory in Asia resurfaced in private equity after cuts
It's a difficult time to be a UBS banker in Asia working in ESG. Earlier this month, the Swiss bank allegedly halved its ESG headcount and cut multiple executive directors. Brendan Tu, a managing director who led the ESG push in Hong Kong, also (voluntarily) walked out the door; his destination is now revealed to be private equity.
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Tu announced today that he is joining Nexus Point Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm. It's a relatively young firm founded by Kuo-Chuan Kung who previously founded MBK Partners, one of Asia's largest PE firms. He was most recently APAC head of ESG advisory at UBS while simultaneously as Asia chairman of the bank's global industrials group. At Nexus Point, Tu said he will focus on mid-market companies with "untapped potential."
It's not the first time that Tu has left UBS. He worked there for 15 years from analyst to MD before leaving to become chief investments officer at manufacturing firm Foxconn Industrial Internet; he returned to UBS three years later with his new (and evidently fleeting) ESG mandate.
UBS told Bloomberg earlier this month that it still wants to be a leader in ESG, but it's focused on "embedding sustainability across the group." It's not a great look, but the bank has more good will to burn through than most; in 2023 we noted that UBS had the lowest funding for the fossil fuel life cycle among major banks. Bloomberg said that, at the time, UBS had over 100 ESG staff, but today the bank has just ~35.
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