Jefferies China Research Head Yu Leaves Firm in Hong Kong

(Bloomberg) -- Laban Yu, the Jefferies Financial Group Inc. head of research for Hong Kong-China and Asia energy and commodities, has left the financial firm.

Hong Kong-based Yu, 45, sent an email to contacts Friday announcing his departure from the company, where he worked since 2011 and was known for his music-inspired research reports.

Read More: The Jefferies Analyst Using 80s Rock to Write About Oil Stocks

Under a subject line “We'll Meet Again” -- a reference to the 1939 tune made famous by Vera Lynn -- the managing director wrote that “the time has come to move on.” He said in a brief interview Monday that the departure was “mutually agreed,” without providing further details. Jefferies, through an external spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Yu's departure comes as New York-based Jefferies is building out operations in Europe and Asia and settles in more than 30 employees it hired from CLSA Ltd., including its former chief executive, Jonathan Slone.

Read More: Former CLSA CEO Slone Joins Jefferies as Asia Chairman

The song-themed message would be familiar to fans of Yu's research, which he said in an interview last year was an attention-grabbing technique to help his work stand out in a crowded field.

A scan of reports in recent months reveal an eclectic taste to accentuate research on topics from China's economy (Frank Sinatra's “I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans”) and the U.S.-China trade war (“Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.), to coal prices (AC/DC's “Spoilin' for a Fight”), oil demand in China (“Even Better Than the Real Thing” by U2) and PetroChina (Bob Marley's “Wait in Vain”).

“It started as a joke,” Yu said in the 2018 Bloomberg interview. “Then I found out it's a bottomless pit. I could do this forever. And it gets to the point where, if you have a good title, the note writes itself.”

Yu previously worked at Macquarie Group and MainFirst.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Livia Yap in Shanghai at lyap14@bloomberg.net;Ramsey Al-Rikabi in Singapore at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ramsey Al-Rikabi at ralrikabi@bloomberg.net, Jonas Bergman

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With assistance from Bloomberg