John Marshall Nicholson () is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

investment banker.

Career

Nicholson worked at

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment banki ...

and

J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * '' Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Par ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

before moving to

in 2002 to take up a position as

Credit Suisse First Boston Credit Suisse First Boston (also known as CSFB and CS First Boston) is the investment banking affiliate of Credit Suisse headquartered in New York. The company was created by the merger of First Boston Corporation and Credit Suisse Group in 198 ...

's Asia-ex-Japan head of

equity capital markets Equity capital is raised in many ways; the major types of equity capital are unlisted equity, listed equity and hybrids. Equity capital market practices traditionally advise on a full range of equity, debt equity-linked, hybrid, asset-backed, cr ...

. In 2005, he transferred to the

Macquarie Group Macquarie Group Limited () is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia (), Macquarie employs more than 17,000 staff in 33 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's ...

, where he held the position of head of China equity capital markets; his hiring was part of a large recruitment drive which saw Macquarie poach Hong Kong-based ECM staff from a number of major banks. In January 2007, Nicholson left Macquarie, one of several senior ECM bankers resigning at the time. He joined

BOC International BOC International Holdings Limited, shortly BOCI, is the wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of China, which offers investment banking and securities brokerage services. It was established in 1998 and headquartered in Hong Kong. It has subsidiaries ...

as vice-chairman of the investment banking division, one of the first senior foreign executives at any Chinese bank. At BOCI, he served as advisor on a number of major deals, including

Rusal United Company RUSAL, international public joint-stock company (russian: МКПАО «ОК РУСАЛ», MKPAO «ОК RUSAL») is the world's second largest aluminium company by primary production output (as of 2016). It was the largest until ov ...

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

on the

Hong Kong Stock Exchange The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong (SEHK, also known as Hong Kong Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange based in Hong Kong. As of the end of 2020, it has 2,538 listed companies with a combined market capitalization of HK$47 trillion. It is rep ...

in 2010. Nicholson's strategy after he joined involved a "build out" of the ECM business and the institutional equities franchise. In 2005, two years before he joined, BOCI led no equity

offering Offering may refer to: In religion * A religious offering or sacrifice * Alms, voluntary gifts to others, especially poor people, as an act of virtue * Tithe, the tenth part of something, such as income, paid to a religious organization or gover ...

s at all, and only seven in 2006; in 2008 through 2010, in contrast, it led sixty-five. In February 2012, Nicholson resigned from his post at BOCI. He then became a managing director at

China International Capital Corp China International Capital Corporation Limited (CICC; 中国国际金融股份有限公司) is a Chinese partially state-owned multinational investment management and financial services company. Founded in China in 1995, CICC provides investment ...

, the first

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

investment bank in China. He resigned from CICC in June 2014. In March 2015, Nicholson took a new post at Nomura's Hong Kong office as head of Asia-ex-Japan equity capital markets. As of December 2017 he remained in that position.

Personal life

Nicholson did his bachelor's and master's degree in chemical engineering at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

, and went on to earn a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accou ...

from the

University of Virginia Darden School of Business The Darden School of Business is the graduate business school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Darden School offers MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs. The school was founded ...

. He married a

woman in 2003. Nicholson applied to the

Hong Kong Immigration Department The Immigration Department of the Government of Hong Kong is responsible for immigration control of Hong Kong. After the People's Republic of China assumed sovereignty of the territory in July 1997, Hong Kong's immigration system remained ...

for naturalisation as a Chinese citizen; as the

Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China Chinese nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, which came int ...

does not permit applicants for naturalisation to retain their former citizenships, he renounced U.S. citizenship on 12 April 2013 at the U.S. Consulate-General in Hong Kong. Nicholson stated that he had chosen to naturalise in order to "make my situation reflect my personal and professional view of my long-term interests". Colleagues suggested his motivations included convenience of travel to

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater Chin ...

in order to visit clients, since only Hong Kong residents of Chinese nationality and not other nationalities are eligible for

Home Return Permit The Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents, also colloquially referred to as a Home Return Permit or Home Visit Permit , is issued to Chinese nationals who are permanent residents of or settled in Hong Kong and Macau as the ...

Peter Thal Larsen Peter Thal Larsen is a Dutch journalist. Thal Larsen graduated from Bristol University before going on to the London School of Economics. He began working for the ''Financial Times'' in 1999 and moved to the paper's New York City office the follow ...

analysed Nicholson's choice as a career move intended to demonstrate to clients that he saw Hong Kong as his home and was not using it as a stepping-stone to opportunities in London or New York like many other expatriate bankers.

References

External links

Positions of Nicholson, John Marshall
on

David Michael Webb David Michael Webb (born 29 August 1965) is an activist investor, share market analyst and retired investment banker based in Hong Kong. Early life Webb graduated in Mathematics from Exeter College, Oxford in 1986. From 1981 to 1986 he was ...

's webb-site.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholson, Marshall Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American emigrants to Hong Kong Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Hong Kong financial businesspeople Hong Kong people of American descent Naturalised citizens of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong Former United States citizens University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumni Merrill (company) people JPMorgan Chase employees American investment bankers People with acquired permanent residency of Hong Kong