UBS on March 16 announced a series of appointments in its equity derivatives business in Asia-Pacific, which is a key part of its global equity derivatives offering and a core component of its overall equities franchise in the region.

Vikesh Kotecha is joining the bank in April 2017 as head of equity derivatives for Asia-Pacific with responsibility for trading, structuring and sales of the business in the region. He will report to Dushyant Chadha, global head of equity derivatives for the equity derivatives product and to Taichi Takahashi regionally for Asia-Pacific equities. Kotecha, who will also join the global equity derivatives executive committee, has more than 20 years of equity derivatives experience and was most recently head of Asia-Pacific equities at Barclays in Hong Kong.

Stephane Petermann is also joining UBS in April as head of equity volatility trading for Asia-Pacific. With more 25 years of experience in equity derivatives trading across equities and FX in Hong Kong, Paris and London, he moves from Societe Generale in Hong Kong, where he was most recently head of equity volatility trading for Asia-Pacific.

Another new appointee is Hirofumi Takaku, who will become head of equity derivatives structured sales for Asia-Pacific. Meanwhile, Tommie Fang will remain as head of China equities and will focus on executing UBS’ strategy in the mainland, including its derivatives solutions business.

Michel Lee will continue to run the firm’s equity capital markets (ECM) and corporate solutions business incorporating ECM cash and strategic equity solutions group within corporate client solutions in Asia-Pacific, but will transition out of managing the equities derivatives business.