BNP Paribas SA, Europe's largest bank by assets, has hired Credit Suisse Group AG's Kunihiko Kanno as cohead of equity research in Japan.
Kanno, voted the nation's top electronics and precision-instruments analyst by Institutional Investor magazine in April, will join Emil Schillinger in leading equity research, Kyoya Okazawa, BNP's head of global equities and commodity derivatives in Japan, said last week in a telephone interview. Kanno, 35, will also take on the role of analyst for precision instruments and imaging for the Paris-based bank, Okazawa said.
BNP aims to boost the number of analysts, traders and sales staff at its equity and derivatives division in Japan by 20 percent to about 60 by next year, Okazawa said. The brokerage hired Shun Maruyama from Credit Suisse to head equity strategy earlier this month, as well as Douglas Butcher, former managing director at Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., as head of execution sales and equity execution in the country.
"We're not just trying to increase analysts numbers, but also trying to hire candidates seen as top analysts," said Okazawa, who joined BNP from Credit Suisse in March. "Kanno worked closely with analysts abroad in global research while at Credit Suisse and has the experience to cover Japanese stocks as part of the wider Asian market."
No coverage
Credit Suisse Group AG, Switzerland's second-largest bank, said it halted its coverage of Japanese banks as the company's analyst Shinichi Ina resigned.
Credit Suisse will no longer cover or provide ratings for 13 Japanese banks, including the top three megabanks.