By Marcus Williams

Japan’s Daiwa Capital has appointed Jung Insuk as head of fixed income in Korea and Ajay Marwaha as head of fixed income in India in an expansion of the business.

Insuk joins from Shinhan Investment Corp., where he was head of fixed income, currency & commodities. Prior to this, he was responsible for trading a wide variety of FICC products, such as domestic and international bonds, currencies and derivatives, at Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse First Boston and KDB Securities.

Ajay Marwaha joins from Nomura in  India, where he served as executive director. Previously, he was also responsible for FICC product trading, and involved in the launch of primary dealer business lines at Lehman Brothers and Citi Group.

In November 2009, Daiwa Capital Markets announced a four-part core action plan to expand its Asian business: upgrading the Hong Kong office to second headquarters status, increasing personnel, strengthening of capital, and appointing local influential figures as advisors. Since then, a number of senior level hires, as well as a series of capital injections have been made in line with this strategy.

These expansion plans, which are focused particularly on China and Hong Kong, followed by India, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, are aimed at significantly expanding operations in Asia, with specific focus on Fixed Income and derivative operations.

The recently announced acquisition of KBC’s global convertible bonds and Asian equity derivative business lines was also in line with this strategy.

Daiwa said the appointment of  Insuk and Marwaha will be followed by further hires and is the first step in expanding operations in these markets.

By Ivan Anderzhanov

Russian investment bank VTB Capital intends to triple its Asian business by launching operations in Hong Kong and expanding further into China, Vietnam and India,  according to a Reuters report.

VTB Capital currently employs about 30 people in Singapore, its only Asian office, which focuses on placing Russian government and corporate debt with Asian investors. It intends to raise that number to 100 over the next three years by expanding into equity capital raisings, trading and M&A.

VTB Capital currently employs about 750 people globally, up from 600 at the start of 2009. The bank has previously said it will boost numbers by 40 percent this year.

By Ivan Anderzhanov

Saxo Bank, the online trading and investment specialist, has today announced the acquisition of a 40% stake in Initto, the Danish owned software provider with 200 staff located mainly in India and Ukraine.

The company said the acquisition of Initto will enable it continue to support and speed up the development of its trading systems.

Since its establishment in 2003, Initto has grown by an average of 50% per year and expects to improve its products with the support of Saxo as a financial partner.

In a joint statement, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen, the co-founders of Saxo Bank, said: “The acquisition is in line with our ambition to acquire fully developed businesses and utilize their expertise to develop and strengthen Saxo Bank’s products and services.”