Wall Street's fourth largest investment bank Lehman Brothers has secured its last remaining market in the Asia Pacific region, acquiring Australia brokerage consultants Grange Securities for an undisclosed sum.
Lehman has a very profitable practice in Asia but Australia was a glaring gap in its growth plans for the region, the bank's Asia chief executive Jesse Bhattal said yesterday.
"All our clients around the world want more exposure to Asia," Bhattal said. "This deal is about completing the geographical gap we have."
Bhattal expects the bank's Asia Pacific headcount to grow 20 per cent this year as it looks for more cross border mergers and acquisitions.
A full scale investment bank operation will be up and running in Australia with in the next 12 months, based out of Sydney. Grange will become part of Lehman's Asian operations but keep its name and its executives.
The merger will accelerate the brokerage's expansion in equities and wealth management, Grange managing director Glenn Willis said.
"We have very robust ambitions," Willis said. "We'd like to be within the top five participants in the market place in the next five years."
Established in 1995, Grange specialises in fixed income, structured credit, hybrid and high yield markets. Its 113 employees will become part of the US bank's 25,000 strong global workforce.
