Willis Towers Watson appoints MD for investment banking business in Hong Kong

Broker Willis Towers Watson has appointed Vincent Lien as managing director (MD) of Hong Kong for Willis Capital Markets & Advisory (WCMA), the firm’s investment banking business. Reporting to WCMA co-chief executive officers, Michael Guo and Rafal Walkiewicz, Lien will be based in Hong Kong and focus on expanding WCMA’s relationship with multinational insurers, Asian institutional investors, and financial institutions in the region. He joins WCMA from Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, where he was a senior member of the Banking, Financial Institutions Group. Prior to this, Lien spent six years at Merrill Lynch’s investment banking division in the US and Hong Kong.  Lien brings experience in the execution and origination of insurance transactions, including Anbang Group's acquisition of Vivat Insurance in the Netherlands, Principal Financial Group's acquisition of AXA's retirement business in Hong Kong, Cathay Life's minority stake acquisition of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation in the Philippines and AIA's acquisition of Aviva NDB Insurance in Sri Lanka. WCMA advises clients in the insurance and reinsurance industry on merger and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and insurance-linked securities. Most recently, WCMA has advised on two successfully closed China – US cross border insurance transactions; the sale of Meadowbrook Insurance Group, Inc to Fosun International and the sale of Sirius international Insurance Group to China Minsheng Investment Corp. Guo said: “Vincent is an excellent addition to our team in Asia and I am delighted to have him onboard. His extensive investment banking experience with global and regional financial institutions in the US and Asia will significantly strengthen our team’s expertise and capabilities. “The deep market knowledge of our team in Asia was instrumental to the success of the recently closed transactions. WCMA has a closely integrated global team and it is our unique access to Asian investors that strongly differentiates our client offering in driving success in cross-border M&A transactions.”  Lien added: “I am excited to be joining Willis Towers Watson and embarking on a new challenge with WCMA, a specialist insurance platform with an established track record.  I look forward to working with the team to further develop and broaden their market coverage in Asia."