HK
Twitchy time until bonuses paid out
It’s ‘twitching time’ (as opposed to the ‘witching time’) in Hong Kong this month, as investment bank employees adopt their best behaviour ahead of their bonus payments. “Bonuses have been announced but they haven’t been paid yet. The last thing anyone wants is to be fired now,” says Christopher Lewis, an independent recruitment consultant in [...]
Work now, get paid later
Now for the bad news: in their desperation to retain staff, banks in Hong Kong are said to be holding back part of bonus payouts. “I-bankers can get 50% of their cash now and leave the rest with the bank for up to five years,” says Christopher Sykes of Edward W Kelly Partners in Hong [...]
Please sir, I want some more
Goldman Sachs is paying impressively large bonuses, but could they be larger? What are the chances of negotiating more money once bonuses have been announced? “In 20 years at Goldman, I never once saw anyone renegotiate their bonus after it had been announced – ever,” says one ex-head of department. “Bonuses are decided in October [...]
Where will the winners be?
Which business areas and banks will award the biggest bonuses this year? We asked headhunters for their predictions. Stephen McAlinden, a consultant at executive search firm Eban in Hong Kong, points to people who have successfully invested on behalf of banks. “At managing director level, those involved in principal investment activities will get the biggest [...]
Bonus boost biggest in Asia
Another week, another round of bonus forecasts… This time they’re emanating from Options Group, a search firm with offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia. It says all the world’s finance professionals are set to see bonuses rise, but predicts Asia’s will see them rise the most. “There’s just tremendous demand for people in Hong [...]
Goldman windfalls to be thinly spread
Goldman Sachs is set to make a killing in the final quarter. But only a select few at the firm are likely to see that feed through to bonuses. The US bank is expected to book a profit of around $1bn on its investment in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which is set [...]
Guarantees jump to the back office
Good news – Asia’s booming financial markets are fuelling rising pay and guaranteed bonuses. Justin Mclennan, Director at Pelham Search Pacific in Hong Kong tells us that in the Asian equity markets, people are moving for a minimum of 30% increase on current packages, and almost all are getting their bonuses guaranteed for their first [...]
Asia’s biggest payers unmasked
The top paying banks in Asia next year will likely be Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley, headhunters say after figures came in revealing the top earning investment banks in Asia ex-Japan. Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs was the top-earning investment bank in the region for the first nine months of the [...]
Global talent shortages threaten M&A boom
“Once again the City has found itself unprepared in the good times,” says Jonathan Baines, chairman of search firm Whitehead Mann. “After cutting back drastically on juniors and hiring in the last downturn, there are not nearly enough people coming through at the mid-level VP positions. We are seeing a real demographic squeeze.” With the [...]
Cost of living helps outweigh big bonuses
A survey by Mercer HR Consulting says Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world – bad news for bankers planning a secondment to the city this year. Expat life in Moscow is now 24% more costly than ex-pat life in New York according to Mercer. Life in Hong Kong is 16% more [...]
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