A former Managing Director at Merrill Lynch’s (ML) Asian division has jumped ship to Nomura. Manish Ghia, who was formerly ML’s Head of APR Securities Lending, is going to be joining the Japanese firm in December as Head of Prime Finance in Asia, according to a report on Monday by Global Investor.
Ghia’s appointment comes as Nomura has had to make changes to its Prime Finance service in Asia. In June of this year, it was reported that Chris Antonelli would be leaving the firm.
Antonelli, who had been with Nomura for ten years, was the firm’s Head of Prime Finance – the position that Ghia now looks set to fill. After joining Nomura as Managing Director in 2008, Antonelli was appointed to his most recent role 2010.
Nomura Lehman Legacy
His joining the firm in 2008 was a result of the financial crash that saw his old firm, Lehman Brothers, sinking into bankruptcy. After Lehman’s former head of Asian prime brokerage services, Tim Wannenmacher, joined Nomura, he brought in a host of his former colleagues. Along with Antonelli, Mia Bourgeois joined the Japanese firm as Head of Asia Pacific Sales and Aditi Velakacharla as Head of Capital Introduction.
Antonelli’s departure from Nomura is not the only major shake-up that Nomura’s prime brokerage division has faced this year. In January, Dougal Brech – formerly Credit Suisse’s European Head of Prime Services – was appointed as Nomura’s Global Co-Head of Prime Finance.
Brech was supposed to be working alongside Antonelli in that role but it seems now that Ghia will be his partner in strengthening Nomura’s prime brokerage offering. The ex-Credit Suisse man’s appointment also came after a prolonged absence from the financial services industry. Brech left Credit Suisse in March of 2016.
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