Two senior Goldman Sachs partners ‘planning to quit’

SINGAPORE — Two senior partners at Goldman Sachs Group in Asia, one of whom is based in Singapore, are in discussions about leaving the bank, people familiar with the matter said.

Asia Pacific Investment Banking Solutions head Anthony Miller is planning to depart after 15 years with the firm, and Mr Michael Smith, head of South-east Asia and another Goldman Sachs partner, is also in talks about leaving, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

Mr Miller’s departure has yet to be finalised, according to one of the people. He was appointed to his current position in 2014. Mr Smith, who is based in Singapore, has been with Goldman Sachs for 10 years. Mr Miller was previously Sydney-based head of the Goldman Sachs financing group in Australia. He became a partner in 2011 following Goldman Sachs’ buyout of its Australian business. In addition to heading South-east Asia, Mr Smith heads the bank’s Asian real estate team. Sources said he was quitting the investment banking industry.

Under Mr Smith, Goldman Sachs has managed some of the biggest real estate deals in Singapore, including the initial public offerings of Mapletree Investments’ industrial, commercial and Greater China units during the past six years. He replaced Ms Hsin Yue Yong, the former head of investment banking for South-east Asia, who left Goldman Sachs last year.

Mr Edward Naylor, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, declined to comment. Neither Mr Miller, who is based in Hong Kong, nor Mr Smith could be reached for comment.

The planned departures, which have been in discussion for several months, are not part of the imminent job cuts at Goldman Sachs’ Asia investment-banking division, the sources said.

Reuters reported last week that Goldman Sachs was planning to cut almost 30 per cent of its 300 investment banking jobs in Asia outside Japan, in response to a fall in activity in the region.

Last year, Goldman Sachs reduced the number of its investment bankers in Singapore — a hub for South-east Asia — to about 35 from 50 and this has declined further this year, sources said. The discussions also come at a time of challenging conditions for the Asian investment-banking operations of large Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs.

The banks are facing a combination of slowing regional economies, higher regulatory costs and tougher competition for deals, with Chinese securities firms making inroads into the business of advising mainland companies on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

The volume of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in South-east Asia dropped by a third last year from 2014, and is down by about a fifth this year as of Sept 23 compared with the whole of last year, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In the equity capital market (ECM) segment, South-east Asia volume fell 37 per cent last year and has declined by 42 per cent in the year to Sept 23 versus last year, the data showed.

Goldman Sachs’ market share in the M&A volume league table in South-east Asia dropped to 3.6 per cent last year from 12.5 per cent in 2014, while its share of ECM volume in the region dropped to 2.8 per cent from 3.4 per cent a year earlier, the data showed. Agencies