Rain and some choppy seas give way to hot, sunny days
What a difference a few weeks can make! March through to April saw an increased flow of new roles across a variety of clients, not just our traditional investment banking clients. In fact over 50% of placements made were with new clients, a healthy sign for our business in Singapore as we continue to try to sail our way through choppy seas in the financial markets. The increased role flow seems to be due to the markets performing well from January onwards. Market confidence has certainly stabilised and more project work is being signed off.
Another marked difference in the last 6 weeks is the time lapse between us discussing a requirement with a client to interviews actually happening. This time has shortened dramatically, again showing signs that the ability, as well as the appetite, to hire is slowly returning. In addition to these positive developments, our Corporate Governance desk recently concluded Astbury Marsden’s largest ever deal in Asia!
April has also been a busy month on the family front for our Singapore office. My mother, sister and niece are staying with me for two and a half weeks. So I have been very busy with theme parks, the zoo, night safari, the beach… the list goes on and on and on – I didn’t realise there was so much to do in Singapore! One of the team has been back to the UK for his mother’s 60th birthday, and another has had family out for a couple of weeks too. Alex has been to Australia for a family wedding and a few of us have a trip to Jakarta and Philippines coming up over the next few weeks – so busy, busy, busy as always.
My last blog mentioned how much rain we’d been having recently. Well that has all changed drastically and we are having very hot, sunny days. It’s lovely. There’s Shakespeare in the Park at Fort Canning Park next week, an open air performance of Twelfth Night with a picnic should be a lot of fun too. “If music be the food of love, then play on”.