Blue-blooded British investment bank Cazenove is pulling out of Tokyo but says its Hong Kong and Beijing offices will be left untouched in the restructuring. About 40 jobs would be lost in Tokyo but 'in terms of what it means for Hong Kong, absolutely nothing', said Cazenove spokesman Kate Bolsover. The bank, which numbers members of Britain's royal family among its clients, has between 50 and 60 staff in Hong Kong and another eight in a Beijing representative office. While the Tokyo office had carved out a niche as a specialist in small and mid-cap research broking, it did not have a corporate finance team working alongside it in line with Cazenove's investment banking business model, said Ms Bolsover. The bank had considered setting up a corporate finance team but 'we decided the cost was too high', she said. The Hong Kong office does have an investment banking division, and last year it was an underwriter on the successful initial public offering of Harbin Brewery. Cazenove cut 40 of 115 staff in non-Japan Asia in May last year as it streamlined ahead of a flotation by this April. Fifteen jobs were lost in Hong Kong. Last month Cazenove said that it was shelving the float indefinitely until market conditions improved.
