UBS has appointed Ben Sung as head of its corporate book for Southeast Asia, as it plans to grow its presence in the Asian private credit market.
Sung was previously UBS’ co-head of debt capital markets in Asia. In his new role, he will manage UBS’s private credit and structured lending for the region. His appointment has been confirmed by a UBS spokesperson.
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UBS took over Credit Suisse last year, and its private markets business has been in flux ever since. In October 2023, a number of Singapore-based bankers left Credit Suisse’s APAC Financing Group, with reports claiming that they were concerned that UBS wouldn’t focus as much on private credit given its lower risk appetite.
However, a number of asset managers have been ramping up their exposure to the Asian private credit markets in recent months. BNP Paribas recently appointed Amit Khandelwal from SC Lowy as a private credit director based in Singapore.
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Earlier this year, M&G Real Estate and Nuveen Private Capital both made high profile new appointments with a view to expanding into Korea.
And late last year, HSBC hired former Credit Suisse banker Boomish Gopalakrishnan to lead the bank’s private credit business across Asia.
A KKR report recently highlighted Asia as a key growth area for private credit globally, stating that “the lion’s share of future global economic growth is expected to happen in APAC.
“Though public markets are evolving, we believe private credit is better suited at the moment to capture the dynamism of the region’s businesses,” the KKR report said.
