Baird to tap China M&A activity

Baird, the US-based investment bank and asset manager, is to expand its China business in a move that highlights the growing opportunities for mid-sized banks seeking to service deal activity involving mid-market Asian companies.

Milwaukee-based Baird will on Monday announce the launch of investment banking operations in Asia with the hiring of Anthony Yan-Hong Siu, a former senior banker at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong. He will be based in the firm’s Shanghai office and focus on cross-border mergers and acquisitions activity.

Baird’s operations span capital markets, private equity and asset management and its investment bankers in the US and Europe specialise in mid-market deals ranging from $50m to $500m in value.

While large cross-border deals typically involve global investment banks, the mid-market space in Asia is not dominated by Wall Street names and thus offers opportunities for banks such as Baird to exploit their niche.

This year is set to be a record one for mid-market deals involving Asian companies, according to Dealogic, the data provider. So far, the aggregate value of announced cross-border mid-market deals involving companies in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, has reached $124.5bn, slightly above the same period last year.

Baird specialises in the industrial manufacturing and outsourcing sectors and has been drawn towards Asia because of China’s importance in the former and India’s in the latter.

The firm has a private equity arm that invests in each sector in the US and Europe, and is planning to target Chinese and Indian companies with a $100m Asia fund to be launched this year.