Australia and Asia: One can't do without the other

When ING put the Barings Asia stockbroking business up for sale at the end of 2003 there wasn't much interest. The business had seen better days and the Asian investment banking market remained subdued, several years after the regional crisis. Asia ex-Australia represented less than a fifth of global market capitalisation and less than a quarter of equity capital raised in 2003.

There were few examples of companies successfully expanding from Australia into Asia and a move to Hong Kong in early 2004 wasn't an obvious career move for several of us. But Nicholas Moore now our chief executive believed that, with hard work and the right people, this securities platform could be leveraged into...