Sarasin hires consulting head, Greater China RMs

Swiss boutique Bank Sarasin announced today it has hired Timon Tam Hang from China Construction Bank in a new role as head of investment consulting for North Asia.

Tam started as a managing director yesterday based in Hong Kong, joining an investment consulting team of eight, with five in Hong Kong and three in Singapore. He reports to Damien Ng, head of investment consulting for Asia, who joined from Credit Suisse in June 2010.

Separately, AsianInvestor also understands that Sarasin has just seen five relationship managers focused on Greater China arrive , three from Clariden Leu, and one each from UBS and Deutsche Bank PWM, with further hires expected in the next six weeks.

It comes after Sarasin lost an established team of eight covering Greater China to rival Julius Baer led by Elina So, who started there on January 3 as a senior client partner based in Hong Kong. Prior to that Julius Baer had failed in its bid to acquire Rabobank’s majority shareholding in Sarasin, a stake eventually bought by Brazil-based Safra Group for around $1.1 billion.

Sarasin’s investment consulting team provides tailored advice to ultra-high-net-worth clients with big books or complex trading needs, either in collaboration with relationship managers or individually on their own.

“We believe that proactive advice is the key to the long-term success of the investment process, as well as each client relationship,” says Ng in a statement.

Tam, who was unavailable for interview, previously established an investment advisory and product platform for CCB and provided training and advisory to mainland Chinese clients.

Before that he spent five years at Credit Suisse, where he worked as head of structured product sales for North Asia until 2010.

He started as an FX trader at HSBC Private Bank in 1987 and later built a structured products team there, remaining with the firm until 2005.