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Lee Zhang, Deutsche Bank: wants to go global |
Deutsche Bank has promoted a mainland Chinese national to the highest level of responsibility of any foreign bank. Lee Zhang is head of global banking for Asia Pacific and chairman of Deutsche Bank for China. That means he not only oversees all of the bank’s operations for China but M&A advisory, equity capital markets (in an internal joint venture with the global markets team) and transactional banking in 16 countries.
When Zhang was given the promotion, some saw it as an elevation in name but not in substance, expecting that he would continue to focus on China and leave it to co-head Jonathan Paul to cover the rest of the region. But with Paul now retired, Zhang has the empire to himself, matching the great ambition he is said to have (some expect him to enter politics). Zhang says he spends one-third of his time in China, one-third in Hong Kong and one-third in the rest of the region; he had been in Australia the week before Euromoney’s call and was due on a major pitch in southeast Asia the following week.
"Guys like Lee Zhang – China’s not enough for them," says a headhunter. "They want to go global."
Zhang is a fascinating figure. A charismatic and tough banker from China’s north, he took a curious route to banking, taking a masters degree in plant science from the University of Alberta and working for Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto before moving to Schroders, then Goldman Sachs as chief representative for China, and on to Deutsche in 2001. A member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – and one of only three members to work for a foreign corporation – he’s clearly connected. However, Deutsche insiders cringe at any description of him as a mainland rainmaker. "It devalues his role a bit to say he’s a door opener in China," says one, who also says Zhang is a stickler for deal execution rather than just being the coverage heavyweight he is depicted as being by rival banks.
Deutsche’s arrival on the China investment banking stage coincides directly with his arrival (although, to put it in context, Deutsche wasn’t really an investment bank anywhere until 1997). It’s an ascendancy that has perplexed competitors, wondering how it can be that a bank with no discernible presence a few years ago can have been lead manager on three of the five-largest equity transactions in China since 2005 (ICBC, China Shenhua Energy and a Petrochina follow-on). Some complain that Deutsche has been particularly quick to play the national card, enlisting the German chancellor to lobby for mandates for the bank in the broader name of cross-border trade. It’s a claim that enrages Deutsche insiders, who see no difference between their leverage of the politics of nationality and Citigroup’s hiring former US Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, or UBS former EU commissioner for trade Leon Brittan.
"When we first started my pitch was: we may not have a track record in China, that means we will work harder than everyone else, it’s important for us," says Zhang. Although it’s tempting to see Deutsche as a one man band given the synchronicity between Zhang’s arrival and the bank’s growth in presence, Zhang himself says: "I don’t think it’s ever been a case of: one individual delivers. At the end of the day it’s the firm, it’s the platform, it’s the team. Clients are not going to award a mandate to a bank that can’t execute it." Deutsche has three top-level MDs below Zhang in China (Charles Wang, Amanda Lu and Yunfei Chen); one headhunter describes as "absolute rubbish" the suggestion that Deutsche lacks strength in depth in China, but does speak of Zhang’s "incredible presence. He’s well plugged into the bank, too."