By Selena Li
HONG KONG, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Citadel Securities is adding office space in Singapore and Sydney to accommodate its growing Asia teams, as it prepares to offer additional services to regional clients and round-the-clock trading in US equities.
The firm is expanding its office space in Singapore and Sydney by 40% and 65%, respectively, the Asia-Pacific head of one of the world's largest market makers told Reuters on Thursday.
"As we provide liquidity in US equities to more clients in Asia
and extend trading hours to cover overnight US time, we are also looking to further strengthen our regional client service capacity," said Citadel Securities' head of APAC, Vikesh Kotecha.
Citadel Securities plans to add traders, technologists, researchers and other supporting functions across its Asia-Pacific offices next year, he said.
Global trading firms and quantitative market makers are sharply scaling up their office footprints and hiring pushes across key Asian financial hubs, capitalising on surging regional volumes, structural shifts toward round-the-clock market activity and growing institutional demand for cross-border asset classes.
Citadel Securities' latest office expansion comes after it secured an additional half floor at Two IFC in Hong Kong's Central district, where its first and largest Asia office is located.
Quantitative trading rival IMC unveiled its new office in Two IFC on Thursday as its hub for its Asia-Pacific systematic equities business, which will be hiring quant researchers, engineers and traders.
Rival Jane Street and more than doubled its Hong Kong office space this year from a year earlier, with Susquehanna plans to triple its office space in the city.
Citadel Securities says it has added nearly 100 staff to its Asia-Pacific team so far this year, with nearly half based in Hong Kong and the remainder in Singapore, Sydney, Gurugram and Tokyo.
That brings its regional employees to around 400 people across six locations in Asia, among a global staff of more than 1,800.
Citadel Securities has expanded its Asian product offerings this year, launching US investment-grade credit, led by Redha Achour, and structured products, led by former Morgan Stanley executive Richard Smerin.
Kotecha said Citadel Securities will continue to build out both businesses next year. The US firm is in the process of applying to set up a China onshore securities brokerage firm.
The regional buildout comes ahead of a planned shift to nearly round-the-clock trading of US stocks, which Citadel Securities expects will increase the amount of activity during Asian hours.
While pre- and post-market sessions account for up to 10% of total US trading volume, overnight sessions currently represent about 1%, Citadel Securities says.
Nasdaq plans to extend trading to 23 hours on weekdays in December, and CME rolled out 24/7 trading of crypto futures and options in late May. Cboe also plans to launch 23/5 trading of US equities from December.
(Reporting by Selena Li; Editing by Kevin Buckland)
