Christopher Wood may leave CLSA in latest high-level exit

Christopher Wood, chief strategist at Asian securities house CLSA, is planning to leave after almost two decades, Bloomberg reported.The departure of Wood, well-known for his ‘Greed and Fear’ newsletter, if it happens, would follow the exit of Chief Executive Jonathan Slone last month and that of CLSA Chairman Tang Zhenyi in February.The Hong Kong brokerage has been facing a series of exits on top after it came under the control of Chinese securities firm Citic Securities.According to a report in Wall Street Journal, Citic’s oversight over CLSA’s operations had increased since July, when a five-year deal giving CLSA’s management day-to-day independence came to an end.Chinese broker Citic bought over its foreign competitor CLSA from France’s Crédit Agricole in a two-stage, $1.25 billion deal in 2013. Zhang Youjun, the chairman of Citic Securities took over charge at CLSA after Zhenyi’s exit in February.WSJ quoted insiders to say Slone and Tang’s departures followed differences over strategy and operations with Mr Zhang. The report also said Zhang wanted the CLSA to act primarily as an extension of Citic Securities, serving Chinese clients abroad rather than operating as an international business.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2Wh6lcc