While many big banks and financial firms are axing staff to cut costs, it is interesting to see some medium size players in hiring mode.
Among them is Reorient Financial Markets, formerly known as Mansion House Securities. When its new management took over in August last year, it had approximately 13 employees, out of which three were traders. As of April, it had 50 employees.
Veteran investors will remember this mid-cap brokerage was among the top 50 largest local brokerages in the 1980s and 1990s, serving many retail as well as institutional investors.
The firm's listed parent company, Mansion House Group, was hit hard by the Asian financial crisis, however, and the holding company was sold to Asia Telemedia in 2001.
The new owner also got into financial trouble and went bankrupt in 2008. After restructuring, the listed holding company was renamed Reorient Group.
What was amazing was that after almost ten years of being owned by troubled parent companies - first Mansion House and later Asia Telemedia - the brokerage arm Mansion House Securities is still up and running.
When a group of investors, acting as would-be white knights tried to buyout Asia Telemedia after 2008, they were also surprised to find out the brokerage was still trading.