JPMorgan expands China research coverage

Four analysts, all Mandarin speakers - Choon-Ming TAN (financial institutions), Jesse Friedlander (conglomerates), Milton Lim (utilities) and Vicki Kalb (consumer) will be relocated to Shanghai to join Frank Li (oil & gas and autos) and Frank Gong.

The postings follow the recent appointment of Frank Gong as head of China research and chief China economist and the appointment of Sherry Liu as managing director and vice chairman for JPMorgan Chase China. JPMorgan now has a team of over 20 research analysts in the region with coverage responsibilities for Chinese stocks.

These include A-share companies and coverage in major sectors, such as conglomerates, consumer, financial institutions, infrastructure, Internet, technology, oil & gas, autos, property, telecom services, transportation and utilities.

"We are committed to strengthening the quality of our China research franchise and are excited to be among the early players in establishing a direct, on-the-ground presence in China," says Jose M Linares, head of Asia (ex Japan) equity research. "Our objective is to have 10 to 15 research analysts on the ground in China by the end of this year in addition to maintaining the current China research team in Hong Kong. We believe this will give us one of the widest and deepest coverage models in the industry."