HONG KONG (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank has regained its Hong Kong Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) sponsors licence after it was suspended in June following the departure of key staff, according to a notice on the website of the city’s markets watchdog.
Regulators put the licence on hold when the bank’s IPO principals left.
Deutsche had still been able to work on deals in a junior role but could not act as sponsor, which in Hong Kong is the most senior role on an IPO.
In Hong Kong, IPOs need at least one sponsoring bank, which typically collects a larger proportion of fees than banks listed only as bookrunners.
Deutsche has recruited a number of senior bankers, led by Ian Long as vice chairman of investment banking and coverage for Asia.
Long, alongside two other recent hires – Derek Chung and Albert Chang – will be the bank’s IPO sponsor principals, according to the posting on the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) website.
Deutsche Bank did not feature in the top 25 banks in the Asia Pacific equity capital markets league tables in the first half of this year, according to Refinitiv data.
It has been rebuilding some of its ECM team across Asia after the business was scaled down as part of a global restructuring in 2019.
(Reporting by Scott Murdoch and Alun John in Hong Kong; editing by John Stonestreet)
