HONG KONG (Reuters) - UBS AG has named Matt Hanning to be head of corporate client solutions (CCS) in the Asia-Pacific region, taking over the Swiss bank's top advisory and financing role in the region from Australia-based Matthew Grounds, according to an internal memo.
A UBS spokesman in Hong Kong confirmed the contents of the memo.
Grounds will remain as UBS's chief executive for Australasia, reporting to regional Chief Executive Chi-Won Yoon, UBS said in the memo to staff obtained by Reuters on Monday.
UBS created the CCS division as part of a broader shake-up of its investment bank in 2012, that saw the Swiss firm pull back from fixed income trading and announce the cutting of 10,000 jobs.
The move saw UBS split its investment bank into two groups, an investor client services division including the bank's equities, foreign exchange, credit and rates trading units, and the CCS division.
The corporate client solutions business houses UBS's merger and acquisitions advisory business and the teams helping with stock market listings, bond issues and other types of financing.
It allows the bank to focus its coverage of corporate clients along regional rather than product-based lines, the bank said at the time in a memo.
Hanning, who joined UBS in Hong Kong in 2006 and most recently co-led the Asian investment banking business with David Chin, will join the bank's investment banking executive committee, UBS said in the memo.
Grounds was instrumental in negotiating a unique bonus protection deal for UBS's top Australia investment banking team, although he himself did not participate, Reuters reported in July 2012.
UBS has consistently been a standout performer in Australia since 2008, topping league tables for estimated investment banking fees earned and working with clients including billionaire James Packer, Seven Network magnate Kerry Stokes, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra and fund manager AMP.
UBS on May 2 announced that former Barclays investment bank chairman Ros Stephenson would become global chairman of CCS, as well as heading the division in the Americas.
(Reporting by Lawrence White; Writing by Lawrence White and Elzio Barreto Editing by Matt Driskill)