Deutsche Bank is introducing a new head of prime broking sales in Singapore. Chris Pagan is moving to Singapore where he takes the role of head of prime finance sales for Southeast Asia. He had been working on the prime finance sales desk in Hong Kong.

He will report locally to Nilesh Navlakha, DeutscheÆs Singapore head of regional equity sales, and regionally to Harvey Twomey, head of global prime finance sales and capital introduction for Asia-Pacific.

"Even though broad-based industry growth and activity is nowhere near the levels of 2006 or 2007, Singapore has certainly solidified itself as a major operating centre,ö says Twomey. ôFor hedge funds in Asia, Singapore is the destination chosen by many of the international groups establishing in the region, and the city has become the de facto centre for many India focused strategies.

Behind this sales initiative, Deutsche says that it is also seeing medium-term opportunity in strategies looking to run single-country funds focused on Vietnam, Thailand and other Southeast Asian markets, and believes that Singapore will prove to be the natural hub for this activity.