Equity Research Associate, Greater China Consumer

About the role

Our Greater China consumer team covers 18 listed names across food and beverage, apparel and household products — a sector where the sell-side consensus is frequently wrong because too few analysts leave the office. We budget for channel checks, and we expect them to be used.

The associate seat supports the senior analyst on modelling, earnings previews and reviews, and initiation drafts. Unlike most desks, our associates are credited on published notes and are expected to take client calls on their own names within the first year.

You will spend real time on the ground: distributor visits in Guangdong, store counts in Mong Kok, and a standing seat on the quarterly management calls. If your idea of research is updating a model on results day, this desk will frustrate you.

What you'll do

• Maintain and improve detailed financial models across the coverage list, including segment build-ups.
• Draft earnings previews, results reviews and thematic pieces to a publishable standard.
• Run channel checks — distributors, franchisees, store visits — and turn them into evidence a client can act on.
• Build and maintain sector databases on pricing, same-store sales and inventory days.
• Prepare client materials and take inbound calls on the names you know best.
• Support corporate access: management meetings, non-deal roadshows and site trips.

What we're looking for

• 3+ years in equity research, buy-side analysis or transaction services with modelling ownership.
• SFC Type 4 licence held, or the HKSI papers completed and ready to transfer on day one.
• Bachelor's degree; strong written English and the discipline to write to a deadline.
• Business-level Mandarin for management calls and mainland channel work.
• Financial modelling that a portfolio manager can audit without asking you what a cell does.

Nice to have

• CFA charterholder or Level III candidate.
• Prior consumer, retail or F&B sector coverage.
• Python or SQL for alternative data work.

What you get

• Named credit on published research from your first initiation
• Two remote days per week outside results season
• CFA sponsorship plus paid study leave before each sitting
• 18 days annual leave and a research offsite each January
• Travel budget for mainland channel work, approved by the desk not by finance