Leonteq wants to use the momentum of its turnaround to wring profits from an Asian push. With a key partnership now up and running, market-watchers are eyeing further tie-ups as well as a Japanese push.
After the derivatives boutique swung back to profit last year, Leonteq wants to sharpen its focus on the Asia market, stand-in Chief Executive Marco Amato told analysts and media in Zurich on Thursday.
The Swiss firm clinched a partnership last year with Britain's Standard Chartered, a weighty player in Asia. The first structured products to result from the partnership hit the market in December. The move is the continuation of a partnership that Leonteq clinched with DBS, but was abandoned after the Singapore bank dropped out.
Leonteq now hopes to bolster local revenue thanks to Standard Chartered's distribution channels instead, and has another tie-up in the region, with Crédit Agricole CIB, percolating. That partnership, which includes platform developments for the French bank to improve how it issues structured products, should be up and running this quarter, Leonteq said.
Assessing Different Options in Singapore
Buoyed at the time by the DBS deal, Leonteq rented prime, spacious real estate in Singapore's Asia Square Tower. The Swiss firm was left stuck with high rental costs and massive overcapacity as it slipped into crisis after parting ways with DBS.
While Leonteq pared back its real estate in London and Zurich – two cities which rival Singapore for property costs – it has yet to adapt in Singapore. «We have an excess of office space in Singapore. We are assessing different options to reduce the space,» Amato told finews.asia.
«But this will not have an impact on the cost level,» he said, adding that he hopes to occupy the space with new hires. The firm also plans to enter the Japanese market next quarter, potentially hiring additional staff onshore, he said.
Continued CEO Hunt
Amato, Leonteq's stand-in boss since October, was coy on his prospects to cement the top job permanently. «I am committed to Leonteq and intend to stay as part of the leadership going on.»
The firm's CEO search is still ongoing, with international outside candidates as well as internal ones, as finews.asia reported. Thus, it is entirely possible that Leonteq presents an outsider in coming weeks. The firm has said it is taking its time, but is believed to want to avoid the embarrassment of not having a permanent successor by its shareholder meeting on March 28.
