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Kuala Lumpur / Bloomberg
Giles Ong, Malayan Banking Bhd.’s head of Asia investment banking, is leaving after building the advisory business beyond the lender’s home market during his four-year tenure.
Ong, 46, tendered his resignation last week, according to an e-mail he sent to colleagues that was obtained by Bloomberg News. In a telephone interview Tuesday, he confirmed the contents of the message and said he will remain at the Kuala Lumpur-based company through April. He declined to discuss plans.
“In the past year I thought long and hard about moving on and have already stayed longer than I intended,†Ong said in the e-mail. “I believe, this is an opportune time to hand the reins over to new leadership and am confident the strong momentum continues.”
Ong joined Maybank in April 2012 after working at Citigroup Inc., and helped build its investment banking business in Indonesia, Hong Kong and China. He hired John Fei, the former head of global capital markets at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.’s advisory unit, as chief executive officer of investment banking for Hong Kong and Greater China, Ong said in the interview.
Ong also assisted with the bank’s integration of its Kim Eng Holdings Ltd. acquisition in 2011. Prior to joining Maybank, he was Citigroup’s head of mergers and acquisitions for Southeast Asia.
Malayan Banking Berhad is a Malaysian universal bank, with key operating “home markets†of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It is Malaysia’s largest bank by market capitalisation and total assets and one of the largest banks in Southeast Asia, with total assets exceeding US$183 billion and having a net profit of US$1.92 billion for 2014.