Pastures green for David Dean

David Dean, Nomura's co-head of Asian ECM, will retire from investment banking at the end of this week, departing a firm he has worked at for just over a decade.

Since his arrival in Hong Kong back in 2001, Dean has made Nomura a force to be reckoned with in Asian ECM. In particular he is credited with turning the Japanese POWL (Public Offering Without Listing) into a standard feature of large equity deals from the region.

Over the past four years, he has completed a total of 13 POWL's, starting with Korea Telecom's $2.24 billion ADR of June 2001 through to a $1.07 billion ADR for Infosys this May. This latter deal took the POWL structure one stage further than before by introducing the concept of a dedicated Japanese tranche. This means Japanese investors are guaranteed a certain level of allocation and cannot get squeezed out by the other bookrunners in the event of a deal being heavily oversubscribed.

Dean leaves behind a nine strong team that will be run by his close friend and current co-head Steve Metcalfe. Dean himself is regarded as one of the most intelligent and warm-hearted of Asian ECM bankers.

He is now hoping to become a concert pianist in London. He dismisses rumours of a return to his 1970's roots on the Northern club circuit in England. Friends, however, note that he appears to be growing sideburns and wonder if the flared trousers cannot be far behind.

 To hear Dean play a fragment of Rachmaninov's piano concerto number 2, please click the arrow on the left.