LONDON (Reuters) - HSBC <HSBA.L> has hired seven new bankers to expand its power, infrastructure and real estate businesses as part of a global push to serve clients across these industries, the investment bank said in a release on Thursday.
It also reshuffled investment banking roles with a handful of internal appointments.
The moves coincide with a shift towards renewable energy sources that is driving a wave of consolidation among traditional utilities and power companies, which are transitioning to a low carbon economy.
HSBC hired Christian Hepp from Jones Lang LaSalle as global co-head of real estate, and Giulio Hoffmann as managing director for power, utilities & renewables from Macquarie. They will both be based in London.
Four other hires will specialise in financing deals in the infrastructure and real estate group (IRG). These include Nicola Free, who was named as managing director for IRG in London.
Helen Li will become co-head of IRG in Asia Pacific, working in Hong Kong. Li joined from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she headed the power and utilities business for Asia.
Within the bank, HSBC appointed Oliver Gibert as global head of infrastracture in London. He was previously head of transport services and infrastructure for Asia-Pacific.
Kara Wang will co-head the real estate team in Hong Kong, while Robert Todd will be global head of power, utilities and renewables, based in London.
In Asia Pacific, Chris Hignell will head infrastructure and transport, services and logistics out of Japan.
Stuart Lea and Arturo Recio will continue as co-heads of the IRG group globally.
Deals in transportation & infrastructure and power showed a significant increase this year so far, totalling a combined $251 billion (192 billion pounds), compared to $171 billion in the same 2017-period, according to Refinitiv data.
The data shows however a 15 percent fall in real estate deals to $285 billion in the same period.
(Reporting by Clara Denina and Pamela Barbaglia; editing by Keith Weir)
