CLSA
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Formerly called
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Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia |
|---|---|
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Diversified financials |
| Founded | Hong Kong (1986) |
| Headquarters | Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
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Number of locations
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25 (2016) |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Jonathan Slone Chairman and CEO |
| Products | Financial services |
| Brands | CLSA’s Investor Forums |
| Services | Equity broking, corporate finance & capital markets and asset management. |
|
Number of employees
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1,400 (2014) |
| Parent | CITIC Securities |
| Website | www |
CLSA Ltd. (formally Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia) is a brokerage and investment firm focused on institutional brokerage, investment banking and asset management for corporate and institutional clients around the world.
Founded in 1986, CLSA has its headquarters in Hong Kong and offices or representatives in 15 cities across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as Amsterdam, Boston, Chicago, New York City, London and San Francisco. In 2013, CITIC Securities, China's largest investment bank acquired CLSA for US$ 1.3 billion.
In 1986, Winfull Laing & Cruickshank Securities began operations in Hong Kong, with former business journalist Jim Walker as chairman. The small brokerage was a 50-50 joint venture between the Woo Hon Fai family and Alexander Laing & Cruickshank.
Walker was soon joined by two other former journalists: Gary Coull, as head of the dealing room, and Malcolm Surry, as head of research. All three had worked at the South China Morning Post; neither Coull nor Surry had any experience in brokering.
The following year, Crédit Lyonnais acquired Alexander Laing & Cruickshank and, after various iterations, Walker’s start-up emerged in 1989 as Credit Lyonnais Securities (Asia). But relations with the French giant – which was about to be engulfed by a series of major financial scandals – soon became ‘impossible’, according to Coull, and he and Walker resigned. They were persuaded to return in exchange for a 35% stake in the company and guarantees of independence.
CLSA was majority owned (65%) by Crédit Agricole, France’s largest retail-banking group, with the remainder held by staff, until 2012. That year, Crédit Agricole sold a 19.9 percent stake to the Chinese firm CITIC Securities. On July 31, 2013, CITIC Securities acquired the remaining 80.1% of CLSA from Crédit Agricole to become the majority shareholder of CLSA.
Controversies that have hit the firm include the Securities and Futures Commission reprimand in May 2004; Asiamoney “vote-rigging” email in 2005; and Allen Lam insider-trading conviction in July 2009
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Wikipedia