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Robert Morse is planning an aggressive expansion from the Primus Financial base in Hong Kong
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Three leading international financial executives believe the time is right, and Hong Kong the platform, to launch a multibillion dollar global financial services firm in Asia.
Their venture, Primus Financial Holdings, was launched last month with a US$1 billion investment and the opening of an office in Hong Kong. At the helm is a management team headed by Robert R Morse, formerly Citigroup's Asia Institutional Clients Group CEO and Head of Global Investment Banking, along with Dr Huan Guocang and Wing-Fai Ng, co-founders of Primus Pacific Partners, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm. Dr Huan and Mr Morse will share the chairman position, while Mr Morse and Mr Ng will be co-CEOs.
"We are uniquely positioned to operate with complete flexibility to focus on the many investment opportunities that exist today," said Dr Huan at the launch of Primus Financial.
The three executives, former colleagues at Salomon Smith Barney and Citigroup in Hong Kong during the 1990s, plan to build a financial services institution in the new venture, encompassing insurance, banking, brokerage, advisory and wealth management services. Primus Financial will also manage an alternative investments platform.
Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity
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Dr Huan Guocang says Primus Financial is uniquely positioned in Hong Kong to focus on
investment opportunities
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The Primus Financial strategy is to acquire, integrate and grow an Asia-based financial services firm, according to Mr Morse. The plan, he said, is to construct a platform of banking and insurance companies across the globe. "Our partners are investment professionals who, through decades of successful investment and operational experience, helped lay the building blocks of several prominent financial institutions. Primus Financial will be able to leverage the experience, relationships and track record built up by the team while leading these companies."
Hong Kong, as an important financial services centre, is an excellent place to launch the new company, Mr Morse continued. "From our base in Hong Kong, we plan to look into acquisitions in Asia, including Greater China, Japan, ASEAN members and India."
The partners are upbeat on the timing. "We feel the present time represents a great opportunity to enter financial services, to structure transactions well and to potentially acquire assets that are very attractive," Mr Morse said. "We plan to build a pan-Asian bank on the basis of those assets, and to grow them organically as economies and markets grow in Asia.
"We set out to raise capital at the beginning of this year. Somewhat ironically, the time when it was most difficult to raise capital was the time when investment opportunity was the greatest. We were successful in finding an anchor investor to provide us with funding of US$1 billion. We hope to expand that over time. We hope to use that capital, along with some financing that we have in place, to invest in a majority, or at least, a 51 per cent stake in financial services companies that need capital and have promise."
Mr Morse sees the current financial situation as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity."
Why Now?
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Wing-Fai Ng, the third member of the Primus management team
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"We see several factors acting in our favour. There is a lot of distress in the financial sector today. That distress represents an excellent entry point to make investments in financial services. Valuation is low, and there are many forced sales of assets by big and small banks. This year and next year will represent a good time to invest. We are focused on wholesale banking, insurance and alternative asset management, with a priority on the fixed-income market, where we think there is a great deal of opportunities now."
Mr Morse noted that the Hong Kong advantage also comes into play.
"We are confident that Hong Kong will recover relatively faster than many other financial centres in the world. One of the biggest factors working for it is the Chinese mainland's economy, which is still showing relatively strong growth compared to the rest of the world."
Related link
Primus Financial Holdings
