里昂证券关闭美国股票业务
里昂证券(CLSA)关闭了其美国股票业务，成为又一个大举压缩研究部门的知名投行。
The Hong Kong-based brokerage, wholly owned by China’s Citic Securities, on Monday said it would cut more than half of its staff in the US. About 90 positions are to go from US equity research, sales and trading, corporate access and associated support functions, while the remainder — about 85 — will continue to focus on offering Asian stocks to American clients.
这家总部位于香港的经纪公司由中国中信证券(Citic Securities)全资控股。周一，里昂证券表示将把其在美员工裁减一半以上。即将裁撤的约90个工作岗位来自美国股票研究、销售与交易、公司联谊(corporate access)以及相关支持职能部门，而保留的约85名员工将继续把主要精力放在向美国客户提供亚洲股票上。
CLSA said it was still “fully committed” to its equity business in Asia, where it consistently tops polls of investors, and noted that it continues to offer the biggest dedicated Asia-markets sales desk in North America.
里昂证券表示它仍“全心致力于”其在亚洲的股票业务(在亚洲，里昂证券一直是最受投资者好评的投行)，并指出它仍将在北美提供最大的专注于亚洲市场的销售队伍。
Rick Gould, chief executive of CLSA’s Americas business, said that while the company had succeeded in providing “differentiated insights” on US stocks, “the economics of providing US equity research [had] become increasingly challenged. Our focus now is to continue to provide our clients access to liquidity and best execution”.
里昂证券北美业务首席执行官里克•古尔德(Rick Gould)表示，尽管公司在提供对美股的“差异化见解”方面取得了成功，但“提供美国股票研究的经济效益已变得越来越差。如今，我们的重点是继续为客户提供获得流动性和最佳执行的渠道”。
Profits in the research business have been falling pretty steadily since the dotcom bust, when allegations of biased recommendations led to tighter use on the rules around using analysts to drum up investment-banking mandates. Then, after the financial crisis, newly cost-conscious banks started cutting economists, strategists and stock pickers because they made little direct contribution to earnings.
互联网泡沫破灭时，一些人指责投资建议存在倾向性，这导致有关部门收紧了对利用分析师来争取投行业务的规定。自那以来，研究业务的利润一直在相当稳定地下滑。接着，在金融危机之后，突然之间树立起成本意识的银行开始裁减经济学家、策略师和选股师，原因是他们对盈利几乎没有什么直接贡献。
The number of analysts working at the world’s 12 biggest investment banks fell to 5,981 last year, according to numbers prepared for the Financial Times by Coalition, a data provider on the industry. That is down from 6,282 at the end of 2015, and 6,634 at the end of 2012, when Coalition began to collect the numbers.
该行业数据的提供商Coalition为英国《金融时报》准备的数据显示，去年供职于全球12家最大投行的分析师的人数降至5981人。这一数字低于2015年底的6282人，也低于2012年底的6634人——当时Coalition刚刚开始收集相关数据。
Shenzhen-based Citic bought CLSA from France’s Crédit Agricole for $1.25bn in 2012, in the first big acquisition by a Chinese broker of a foreign competitor.
总部位于深圳的中信证券于2012年斥资12.5亿美元从法国农业信贷银行(Crédit Agricole)手中买下了里昂证券，这是中国券商对外国竞争对手的首宗大手笔收购。
Citic’s parent company was established in 1979 at the behest of Deng Xiaoping and was a pioneer in China’s experiments with capitalism. Its businesses now span banking to real estate and mining, and the group reports directly to China’s cabinet.
中信证券的母公司是1979年按照邓小平的指示成立的，它曾是中国开展资本主义试验的先锋。如今，该集团的业务已从银行业拓展至房地产及采矿，该集团直接向中国国务院汇报。
