CLSA’s India division too witnessing an exodus

Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA has seen a series of exits at top levels in various countries in recent years. Now, its India division is said to be witnessing an exodus. Speculation in the market is that about 11 executives have quit CLSA to join Jefferies in Mumbai and other Asia offices. Most of the exits have happened from research, while one is said to be from the sales trading team. Both CLSA and Jefferies did not respond to queries. In May last year, CLSA’s chief strategist Christopher Wood left the Asian securities house after almost two decades, and joined Jefferies as chief of global strategy. The year also saw other top level exits like that of chief executive Jonathan Slone and chairman Tang Zhenyi. Reports following these high level exits had said that Chinese broker Citic, which bought CLSA in 2013, wanted the firm to focus on serving Chinese clients abroad instead of global clients.