Barclays appoints StanChart’s Kunal Ahuja as Southeast Asia M&A head

Barclays Plc has hired Standard Chartered’s Kunal Ahuja as head of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Southeast Asia. The appointment comes at a time when the lender is looking to bolster its share of the region’s dealmaking boom.

Ahuja’s hiring follows that of Ee Ching Tay who joined Barclays as head of Southeast Asia banking from JPMorgan Chase & Co. earlier this year.

The executive director at StanChart in Singapore had worked at the lender for more than 11 years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Ahuja also previously worked at Cooperatieve Rabobank UA and Fidelity Investments.

He is set to start at Barclays later this year, after a gardening leave period and will be based in Singapore.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the volume of M&A targeting companies in Southeast Asia has scaled up to about $62 billion this year, representing a 65% increase from last year.

Some of the major deals include the merger between ride-hailing and payments giant Gojek and e-commerce pioneer PT Tokopedia, and the agreement between Axiata Group Bhd. and Norway’s Telenor ASA to combine their Malaysian mobile operations.

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