Jefferies has appointed a new chief executive of equities in Asia, where it is set to start building a full-service equities team having successfully established a research and trading business in its home market and Europe.

After a year of aggressive hiring across its business in the US and Europe, the bank has now hired Michael Alexander as chief of its Asian equities operations. Alexander, who will be based in Hong Kong and start his job in October, will lead a newly-created team of seven equity research, sales and trading staff.