Credit Suisse has made several key hires, including that of a new REITs Equities Research team, underlying its commitment to continue to build its equities business in Australia.

Richard Close joined Credit Suisse this month as a senior salesman on the equity research sales desk, the bank said in a statement. He joins the firm from Citigroup Global Markets in Australia, where he was director in institutional research sales. Prior to this, he worked for Deutsche Bank in the UK, in Asia Pacific equity research sales.

Jarrod Martin, who will join Credit Suisse in March, will work as joint lead on Australian bank research with James Ellis. Mr Martin joins from RBS’s banking equities research team, which he has led since 2006. Before that, Jarrod worked for Westpac.

Stephen Rich joined Credit Suisse from UBS as head of the new REITs equities research team. At UBS he covered domestic large caps since 2007. Before that, he worked in Deutsche Bank’s real estate equities research team.

Analyst Andrew Rosivach, who now leads the US REITs research product, will continue to be involved in Australian research, supporting the new team, the bank said.

The other new team members are Rowena Causely, from Macquarie Group, John Lee, from Stockland Group, and Vanessa Webb, from law firm Jeffreys & Associates.

“These appointments reflect our strategy of building a top-ranked client franchise in Australia, in line with our position as a global leader in Equities,” said Jonathan Gurnsey, head of equities for Australia, who believes that the bank will continue to grow this business in 2010.

“These new hires come from a range of backgrounds, reflecting an approach that embraces both highly experienced, top-rated people from other leading financial institutions, and also new talent from alternative but related industries and backgrounds,” Mr. Gurnsey added. “We believe this approach offers a diversity and freshness in our team. The REITs research team is a great example of this mix.”

The new appointments follow other hires at Credit Suisse in Australia in recent months, including the appointment of Andrew Bruce, who has joined the firm’s Alternative Execution Products team; Philip McLean, who joined the sales team; and Patrick James who is managing product structuring.