New York: Jefferies announced today the hiring of Christie Ju, CFA as a Managing Director and Head of Hong Kong and China Equity Research. She will be responsible for managing the firm’s equity research practice in Hong Kong and China as well as providing coverage of the Property / Real Estate and Conglomerates sectors. Ms. Ju is based in Hong Kong.

Steven R. Black, Global Head of Equity Research at Jefferies, commented, “This is the next step in the ongoing expansion of Jefferies in Asia. Christie is the leading equity analyst in the real estate and conglomerates sectors. Under her leadership, we aim to become a top provider of Asian equity research to our global client base.”

“We are pleased to welcome Christie to Jefferies,” added Nilesh Jasani, Head of Asia-Pacific Equity Research at Jefferies. “Her broad experience, excellent reputation and extensive network across Asia will bring immediate value to Jefferies’ clients as we continue to build our Asia-Pacific equities platform.”

Jefferies is establishing a full-service equity sales, trading and research capability focused on Asia, including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan. As part of this build-out, Jefferies announced in July 2010 the addition of a number of key professionals as part of the firm’s expansion, including Michael Alexander as CEO of Jefferies Asia, Mr. Jasani as Head of Asia-Pacific Research and Chris Shute as Head of Asian Sales and Sales Trading.

Jefferies recently initiated equity research coverage in Hong Kong, adding over 30 Chinese companies to its global equity research coverage. These include companies within the China Property, China Conglomerate and China Consumer sectors. As part of the firm’s ongoing build-out in Asia, Jefferies plans to continue to add analysts and expand coverage accordingly.

As part of Ms. Ju’s introduction, Jefferies will host an Investor event, China Property Day, on 6 January in Hong Kong that will include over 20 prominent industry experts and leading Chinese property companies from the sector. Ms. Ju will also present her latest view on the broader industry dynamics and future outlook and discuss her 2011 Top Picks in the China Property sector.

Jefferies and its affiliates have more than 180 equity and fixed income research professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia covering over 1,300 companies in the areas of aerospace & defense, clean technology, consumer, energy, financial services, gaming & leisure, healthcare, industrials, maritime, media & entertainment, real estate, technology, telecommunications and utilities.

Ms. Ju joins Jefferies from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where she was a Managing Director and Co-Head of Hong Kong/China Research as well as Head of Conglomerate & Property Research. Previously, she was a Senior Analyst at JP Morgan in Hong Kong, and started her career as a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company. She has over ten years of equity research experience and was ranked #1 in the Conglomerate and Real Estate sectors in the 2010 AsiaMoney Analyst Poll and #1 in the Institutional Investor All-China Research Team in 2010 and Asia-ex Japan in 2008 and 2010. Additionally, Ms. Ju has been ranked as the #1 Asia Conglomerate Analyst by AsiaMoney since 2008. She received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, an MS from the University of Rochester and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Jefferies Group, Inc.  a global securities and investment banking firm, has served companies and their investors for 49 years