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Jardine Fleming's (JF) 10-man corporate finance team in Tokyo has quit en masse to join the local office of rival investment banker ING Barings.

News of the mass walk-out was revealed by ING Barings at the weekend.

The defection of key Jardines deal-makers, led by director and head of corporate finance and capital markets Hideaki Kaneko, will come as a blow to Chase Manhattan after just wrapping up a US$7.7 billion acquisition of the company and its British merchant banking parent, Robert Fleming.

Regarded as the 'jewel in the Robert Fleming crown' JF was the ultimate target of the acquisition - completed on September 7 - as Chase sought to build an Asian investment-banking presence, with a focus in Japan. Rumours of dissatisfaction among Jardines staff since the takeover have, meanwhile also emerged in Hong Kong.

In investment banking circles the word at the weekend was that further JF defections could not be ruled out.

The developments could also raise concerns among JP Morgan employees.

On September 13 Chase said it had agreed to buy J P Morgan, and has already admitted the move - which puts a price-tag of US$27.6 billion on JP Morgan - would mean job-losses.

Last week Chase chairman and chief executive officer, John Harrison, said the job losses arising from the JP Morgan takeover would amount to 'less than 3,000' and added the combined group would announce a retention plan for key staff once the deal was closed.

'When you buy an investment bank, the assets you are buying are its key personnel,' said an investment banker at the weekend.

'Unfortunately, those are assets that can just walk out of the door.'

In its weekend announcement, ING Barings, the corporate and investment banking arm of Dutch financial services group ING Bank, said it was 'delighted' by the appointments.

'We are looking forward to the contribution Mr Kaneko and his team will provide, and are delighted to welcome them aboard,' said John Howland-Jackson, chief executive officer for ING Barings, Japan.

Other top guns to jump ship with Mr Kaneko were Ryohei Shimazaki, director of corporate finance and capital markets, Yusuke Nishi, who was engaged in the origination and execution of cross-border M&A transactions, and Shinya Fujinaga, initially engaged in equity derivative product marketing and then equity capital markets.

Among the headline-grabbing accomplishments of the team while they were with JF was the successful engineering of the first hostile takeover in Japan - the bid for control of listed drug maker SSP by German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim.

An aggressive expansion by the Dutch banking group in Asia has seen it poaching key staff from its rivals.

Coinciding with the weekend announcement on the JF defections, was news that ING Baring had also beefed-up its financial markets' division in Tokyo.

Included among six new appointments to the division were two former Barclays Capital directors - Trevor Vail and Jonathan Govier.

Mr Vail, formerly director and head of credit trading for Barclays' Tokyo office, was appointed director head of credit trading for ING Barings; and Mr Govier, formerly an associate director with Barclays, was appointed vice-president senior trader, high grade credit trading.

The consolidation presently underway in the banking industry has shaken-up the rankings of the world's top-20 banking groups.

It is a table which is dominated by Japanese banks. The world's biggest, with assets of US$1.25 trillion, is Mizuho Holdings - created through the merger of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, and the Industrial Bank of Japan.

In the wake of its merger with JP Morgan, Chase has climbed to No 8 in the rankings, with assets of US$667 billion. ING Group is ranked No 12, with assets of US$479 billion.



Jardine Fleming loses Tokyo team to ING Barings