(Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recruited former Morgan Stanley staffer Jaehoon Ahn to lead its investment banking business in South Korea, according to an internal memo.
Ahn will join the firm as a managing director next month from SK Bioscience Co., where he was most recently vice president and head of strategic planning and corporate development, the memo said. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs confirmed its contents.
Goldman is reshuffling its team in South Korea after the departure of David Chung, former country and investment banking head, following more than two decades with the bank. The Wall Street firm last week also appointed new heads of investment banking in India and named new leadership for real estate banking and Hong Kong coverage to fill the void left by Goldman veteran Stephen Wong.
Ahn will also be co-country head and co-branch manager alongside Jae Joon Choi, the memo said. He has previously had stints at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch (Asia Pacific) Ltd., according to his Linkedin profile.
He will work closely with Edward Byun, who had interim responsibility for Korea investment banking and will continue to have a leadership role as co-head of equity capital markets for Asia ex-Japan. Seok Yong Lee was earlier named chief operating officer for Korea investment banking.
Goldman ranked first among global banks advising mergers and acquisitions in Korea so far this year, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. In April, it advised MBK Partner’s in its $1.4 billion acquisition of Geo-Young, Korea’s largest wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical drug products. Last month, it led the $365 million Nasdaq initial public offering of Naver’s Webtoon and was involved in the $2.1 billion stake sales in four Samsung Group companies in January, the memo said.
Goldman has invested more than $4.7 billion in Korea since 1999 after its representative office was promoted to a branch, and has about 100 employees in its Seoul office, according to the memo.