The latest senior wealth management and legal practice moves from across Asia.

Equities First Holdings
Equities First Holdings, which concentrates on asset-backed financing, has named former Nomura Wealth Management senior figure Johnny Heng as managing director and head of Singapore. 

With immediate effect, Heng (pictured) will be responsible for leading the firm's origination strategies in the market while reporting to Gordon Crosbie-Walsh, chief executive for Asia.

A private wealth management veteran, Heng has more than 25 years of professional financial services experience, bringing deep industry knowledge and expertise in wealth management and investment advisory to the team. He was most recently chief client officer at Nomura Wealth Management, overseeing all key client relationships. Prior to this, he has served in senior roles in Coutts, Credit Suisse and Wah Hin & Company, and has spent more than a decade with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation managing equities trading divisions across London, New York and Singapore.

Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank Wealth Management has appointed Divik Maheshwari as a senior foreign exchange advisor and team lead of Southeast Asia forex advisory. The German bank has brought back a man who had worked for it from 2007 to 2011.

Based in Singapore, he reports to Coo-Way Law, managing director, head of Southeast Asia investment management. He will work with clients and relationship managers, leading his team to provide tailored investment and hedging solutions for the Southeast Asia market headed by Shang-Wei Chow.

Maheshwari worked as portfolio manager trading forex, rates and equities with ExodusPoint Capital and Millennium Capital. Prior to this, he was with Credit Suisse advising ultra-high net worth individuals in private banking and advising institutional clients in global markets. He was with Deutsche Bank from 2007 to 2011, handling corporate forex in global markets at Mumbai, India.

He brings 17 years’ experience in financial markets and conducts training programmes on forex with the CFA Society and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has also co-authored the book titled Financial Derivatives – The Currency and Rates Factor, published by Pearsons which is widely used as a textbook in various graduate courses in India.

In early August, Deutsche Bank appointed Alania Hsu Concepcion as investment management team head for Southeast Asia.

Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand)
Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand), which provides wealth management as part of its range of services, has appointed Arapat Sangkharat as chief executive and non-independent executive director with immediate effect. He succeeds Montree Sornpaisarn who retired on 30 June 2021.

Sangkharat joined the firm in August 2020 as deputy CEO and regional head, transformation, Maybank Kim Eng Group. He was later appointed as officer in charge on 1 July. 

Sangkharat has more than 24 years’ experience in financial services and management consulting in Asia and the US. An executional strategist with expertise in business strategy, digital transformation, merger and integration and the execution of innovation blueprints, he has worked with more than 20 financial services institutions, including Siam Commercial Bank, Bank of NY Mellon, American Express and Citigroup over the span of his career with Deloitte and PwC. He holds a master of business administration in financial investments from the University of Southern California.