Deutsche and SSB appoint Korean IB heads

The game of musical chairs among Korean investment banking heads continues, as Deutsche Bank moves to increase its business prospects in the Republic with the recruitment of Sung-Eun Ahn to a newly created post as head of global corporate finance, Korea. Based in Seoul, Ahn will report to Philp Crotty, head of Global Corporate Finance, Asia.

"We are active in the region for advisory and other corporate finance work and expect to grow this business even further in Korea with Ahn coming onboard," Crotty comments. "Korea is extremely important to the growth of our business in the region."

Salomon, meanwhile, has announced Joseph Choi will replace Ahn as head of investment banking Korea. Choi takes on the job after only 10 months as head of transaction execution based in Hong Kong. Prior to this, he acted as the lead investment banking counsel for Salomon Smith Barney and Credit Suisse First Boston over a period of four years.

The man who guided Salomon through the legalities of the complex $1.25 billion equity re-capitalisation of Hynix Semiconductor, Choi is regarded internally as one of the bank's most enthusiastic and hard working bankers.

And with the highly respected SJ Lee still to announce his next move after his resignation from CSFB as head of investment banking in Korea, the spate of hiring activity looks set to continue.