HSBC has appointed Aaron Waters head of European equity trading at HSBC global asset management and Noam Abettan head of European fixed income trading while KNG Securities has appointed Gary Ballard as head of equities.
Waters was previously head of equity trading at HSBC for more than three-and-a-half years, managing the London based equity dealing desk at HSBC GAM.
Prior to this, Waters was a senior electronic trader at the firm for almost three years, based in London.
Prior to HSBC, Waters spent the best part of a decade in the Asia Pacific region, working for global asset management firm AllianceBernstein (AB), working as an equity trader in Hong Kong for over six-and-a-half years and as an associate portfolio manager in Australia between 2011 and 2013.
Prior to AB, Waters spent over two years at Henderson Global Investors as a performance analyst, based in London. Waters reports into Andy Ho, global head of equity trading.
Abettan was previously head of fixed income trading and digitalisation at the firm for a year-and-a-half. Prior to that he spent more than 12 years as a fixed income trader on the buy-side, working with IT departments to develop internal pricing controls to ensure pre-trade and post-trade, among other work.
Prior to joining HSBC, Abettan spent eight months at Allianz as an assistant fund manager for European equities, conducting financial and strategic analysis as well as fund performance analysis and monitoring.
Abetton continues to report into Laurent Esposito, global head of fixed income trading.
An HSBC spokesperson said: “These promotions represent a new structure we have introduced within our trading team at HSBC Asset Management, led by Daniel Leon, global head of trading, treasury management and global solutions, as we look to globalise and integrate our trading platform further and regroup our expertise across Europe.
“This new structure marks another step in consolidating our trading hubs. It will allow us to leverage specialised asset class expertise and foster the adoption of best practices across our entire platform.”
KNG Securities has appointed equity capital markets veteran Gary Ballard as its new head of equities.
Ballard joins KNG with more than 30 years of experience in equity sales, having previously worked at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Baring Securities. He will spearhead the firm’s expansion into equities.
Ballard says: “I am delighted to join a firm with such strong commitment to long-term growth. I’m keen for KNG to start to build the same reputation in equities as it already enjoys in fixed income.”
Ballard joins KNG from VTB Capital, where he was a managing director and global head of equity sales.
As head of equity sales, Ballard will be focused on “special situations” – helping KNG’s clients deal in equities where liquidity may have temporarily been reduced.
The firm said Ballard’s experience in equities, particularly with European and Asian institutional clients, will be strategically important to the firm’s growth.
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