RPT-UPDATE 1-Lehman hires UBS's Patrick Lee for SE Asia -sources

(Repeating item first sent late on May 8)

By Saeed Azhar

SINGAPORE May 8 (Reuters) - Lehman Brothers LEH.N has hired Patrick Lee from UBS (UBSN.VX) to run its Southeast Asian investment banking business, as the Wall Street bank aggressively expands in Asia, banking sources said on Thursday.

Lee, who headed UBS AG's investment banking operations in Singapore and Malaysia, is taking a bigger position in Lehman, overseeing activity across Southeast Asia, one person with direct knowledge of the move told Reuters.

Lee, whose team advised Telekom Malaysia (TLMM.KL), which spun off its $9 billion mobile phone unit, has been at UBS for five years. He had joined the Swiss bank from Morgan Stanley (MS.N) in 2003.

In Southeast Asia, Singapore has been a key area for investment banks as they seek business from the country's two sovereign wealth funds, Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp, which recently poured billions into Merrill Lynch MER.N, UBS and Citigroup (C.N).

Lehman, which had a big operation in Tokyo, is taking a huge bet on Asia, joining other Wall Street banks aiming to grow outside their home market, which has been battered by the subprime mortgage crisis.

The U.S. bank has expanded in Asian financial centres from Hong Kong to Singapore and Mumbai, and is eyeing further expansion in China, where it has representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai.

The Wall Street bank, which employs about 3,000 people in the Asia Pacific, excluding its India back office, recently advised Aluminum Corp of China (Chinalco), which teamed up with Alcoa on its $14 billion purchase of a stake in Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX).

Separately, UBS appointed Parvati Banati and Sutha Kandiah as co-heads of investment banking for Singapore and Malaysia, two people told Reuters.

Sutha recently was head of equity capital markets Japan and has previously worked in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

UBS, which has suffered heavy losses from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, said earlier this week it would cut 5,500 jobs, almost 7 percent of its workforce, by lay-offs and attrition as it reverses a rapid expansion into investment banking.

Earlier this month, sources told Reuters that UBS's chief of China investment banking, Will Li, was leaving. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar, editing by Will Waterman)