Merrill Lynch & Co, the world's largest securities firm, said Check Low resigned as chairman of its Asia business, the seventh senior departure since December when Stanley O'Neal became chief executive officer.
Low, who joined Merrill in 1995 and has been chairman in Asia for 16 months, will be replaced by Raymundo Yu, the bank's head of private clients in Asia. Yu was co-chairman in Asia with Low until last May.
Under Low, Merrill tumbled to 11th from fourth among advisers on takeovers in Asia outside Japan in 2002 and to fifth from first among arrangers of equity and equity-linked sales in the region, Bloomberg data shows. It was ranked 14th among debt arrangers in Asia last year from fifth a year earlier.
"Merrill expanded aggressively, especially in the private client business, and now they're following the herd," said Albert Yue, a director of Goodwood Investments Co in Hong Kong.
Merrill cut about a third of its workforce in the two years to the end of last year. O'Neal has eliminated 14,800 jobs and closed 266 offices around the world since being appointed president in mid-2001.
Robert McCann, Merrill's head of research and one of O'Neal's first senior appointments, resigned earlier this month after 21 years at the firm.
Low's exit follows the departures this year of Vice Chairman Jerome Kenney and Chief Technology Officer John McKinley. In December, Kelly Martin, like McCann a senior vice president, and Michael Marks and Paul Roy, both executive vice presidents, announced plans to leave. More than 3,000 people work for Merrill in Asia and more than 7,000 in Europe. Merrill's profit almost quintupled to US$2.6 billion last year from US$573 million in 2001.
Kevan Watts, the most senior executive in the firm outside the US, was promoted to run Merrill's European and Asian units in December. Watts was a former executive chairman of the bank's Asian businesses outside Japan from 1997.
Watts played a key role in Merrill's 1995 purchase of Smith New Court Plc, which made Merrill the largest brokerage in the UK, and also saw Low joining the firm. Low, who has a masters degree from the London School of Economics and is a board member for Singapore Exchange Ltd., worked for Smith New Court for nine years in London and Singapore.
Both Marks and Roy, who resigned recently in Europe, worked at Smith New Court before it was bought by Merrill.
"I look forward to taking a break and then putting all of my energies into a new venture," Low said in an e-mailed message sent to Merrill staff yestersay. The contents of the e-mail were confirmed by Merrill's Asia spokesman, RG Rosso.
Merrill is a passive, minority investor in Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.
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