The former CEO of Citi’s Asia-Pacific institutional clients group, Robert Morse, has announced his intention to launch a global financial services form called Primus Financial Holdings, based in Hong Kong.
The financial group will encompass financial advisory, wealth management and private equity services.
Primus Financial, which will focus on investments in the financial services industry in China, Japan, India and Southeast Asia, is the successor to Primus Pacific Partners, a Hong Kong fund manager with USD500 million in assets.
The chairman position at Primus Financial will be shared with Huan Guocang, who was chief executive at Primus Pacific, while Wing-Fai Ng, managing director of Primus Pacific, will be co-CEO of the new fund. Both men also worked with Morse at Salomon Smith Barney and Citigroup in Hong Kong during the 1990s.
Morse told Reuters that the firm had already raised USD1 billion from a single private investor for investments in financial services such as wholesale banking and insurance. By acquiring majority stakes in companies with a significant share in their markets, Primus Financial hopes to create a stand-alone financial services firm.
Morse left Citigroup last August.
D.C.