StanChart to ramp up China M&A staff

By Jason Subler

BOAO, China (Reuters) - Standard Chartered (STAN.L) plans to increase the staff of its China corporate advisory unit by about 50 percent a year over at least the next two years to serve the growing tide of Chinese firms making acquisitions overseas, its chief said on Friday.

The increase will primarily aim to help Chinese energy, chemical, metals and mining as well as manufacturing firms secure resources, brands or production facilities in other emerging markets, said Charles Cheng, head of China corporate advisory for StanChart.

"Our greater China team is now about 25 to 30 people. We may grow that by about 50 percent a year for the next couple of years at least," Cheng told Reuters in an interview.

"We'll put more senior people and more experienced global bankers here, who can understand the clients' strategy with a global view," he said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia, being held on the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

Chinese firms, state-owned and private, are increasingly looking to invest overseas, whether to tap new markets, obtain new technology or secure the resources needed to fuel the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Cheng said that the lion's share of his unit's work focused on acquisitions by Chinese firms, with the remainder made up by helping multinational firms coming to China.

"Going forward, about 70 percent of our work will still be helping Chinese companies go overseas. We're going to have different industry teams: an oil and gas team, a chemical team, a metals and mining team, a power team and also a telecom team," he said.