Goldman Sachs Changes Asia Investment Banking Leadership: Memo

Leland, an American who joined Goldman in 1992, will replace Andrea Vella and Kate Richdale who were appointed co-heads of the unit in 2015.Vella and Richdale will remain in the region to become the co-chairs of the unit, said the memo sent to the bank staff and seen by Reuters on Monday. Leland was named a co-president of the bank for Asia Pacific excluding Japan in September last year, a designation that he will retain, the memo said. He had previously worked in London for 10 years. A Goldman spokesman in Hong Kong confirmed the content of the memo. Leland takes over at a time when China's aggressive outbound push for mergers and acquisitions has slowed this year amid an escalating trade war with the United States, and weaker markets are expected to weigh on the appetite for new equity offerings. In the first nine months of 2018, Goldman's revenue in Asia, which is smallest of its three regions, rose 9 percent to $3.9 billion. Asia's share of group sales fell by 1 percentage point to 14 percent in that period, its filings showed.