NIC Bank hires former HSBC executive

NIC Bank Group has appointed former HSBC executive Jerry Simu as director of its investment banking unit.

He will be in charge of the unit’s subsidiaries NIC Capital and NIC Securities.

Mr Simu, whose appointment is awaiting regulatory approval, was formerly the sub-Saharan Africa managing director and head of Africa Representative Offices at HSBC in Nairobi. HSBC closed the office last year as part of a worldwide scale-down of operations.

Under the new structure, the general managers of NIC Securities and NIC Capital will report directly to Mr Simu, unlike previously when each reported directly to the group managing director John Gachora.

“Bringing the two subsidiaries under one department the bank could leverage on the synergies between the two and expand product offerings to cater for the growing corporate customer base,” said NIC Group managing director John Gachora.

“We have seen a rising appetite in the market for investment banking services, especially capital raising and we want to ensure we are well placed to dominate this business.”

NIC Bank runs its investment banking business under NIC Capital and the stock brokerage business under NIC Securities. 

NIC Capital earned Sh95 million in advisory fees for the year ended December 2014, as per the latest published results.

NIC Securities on its part traded stocks worth Sh4.83 billion for the first six months of this year giving it a market share of 2.27 per cent, while its bond deals were valued at Sh10.68 billion (buys and sells), a market share of 2.35 per cent.