How CLSA Had the Life Squeezed Out of It
An insane asylum of nonconformist analysts doesn’t meld easily with the culture of a Chinese state-owned company.
Just a nameplate.
Photographer: Anthony Kwan/BloombergCLSA Ltd. is losing its identity. That’s bad news for its parent’s ambitions to build a globally competitive Chinese investment bank in the mold of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Citic Securities Co. is tightening control over CLSA following an exodus of employees and top executives from the Hong Kong-based brokerage last year, Cathy Chan of Bloomberg News reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the changes. China’s biggest broker is creating a “coordination committee” at CLSA that will include Citic Securities’ president and chairman, an interim step toward reordering a decision-making structure that’s seen as too independent, they said.