Mr. Lei Zhu

Managing Partner / CIO (Capital Markets)

Mr. Zhu started his career at the ICBC headquarters. He holds a Master's degree in Science from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and a Bachelor's degree in Financial Engineering from Xiamen University. He began his fixed income trading and investment career at the ICBC HK Treasury Centre, which is based in Hong Kong.

He managed a $28 billion fixed income portfolio before taking charge of fixed income trading. He held various positions, including Prop Trader, Senior Prop Trader, Head of Trading, and Head of Credit Bonds Investment. The portfolio he managed included corporate and government bonds, with investment targets across all developed countries, all G7 currencies, and major sectors such as banks, TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications), and car manufacturers. He pursued absolute returns and achieved impressive investment results.

Mr. Zhu built the platform for the G7 bonds dealing desk on behalf of ICBC. He led his team in establishing comprehensive counterparty relationships with prominent Chinese institutional investors, sovereign investors from Southeast Asia and the Middle East, leading G7 bond issuers, and investment-grade bond dealers from the US, Europe, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Canada. These dealers included major firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, HSBC, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Nomura, and other market participants.

Mr. Zhu led his team in supporting ESG bond issuance globally and facilitating the two-way flow of RMB bonds on behalf of ICBC headquarters, marking the introduction of the first batch of Southbound bond investments in the market.

Mr. Zhu has a comprehensive understanding of fixed income products, markets, competitors, and the regulatory environment. He is known as an extensive researcher and a senior portfolio manager, adept at identifying opportunities for portfolio enhancement under current market conditions. He has also been recognized as one of the most astute investors in Asian G3 Bonds for the past six consecutive years by Assets Asia.