HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - The Carlyle Group said it appointed Sunil Kaul as head of its Southeast Asia buyout team, two days after the private equity firm fired its former Indonesia head Rajiv Louis.

Mr Kaul, who joined Carlyle in August 2008 and has advised on investments across Asia, will continue to be based in Singapore, the company said in a statement Friday.

Carlyle created the role for Mr Kaul to look after its deals in Southeast Asia, taking over the duties previously performed by Mr Louis, said Brian Zhou, a Beijing-based spokesman at the firm.

On Wednesday, the U.S. private equity fund fired Mr Louis soon after the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced it had sanctioned him for insider trading in the shares of PT Bank Danamon Indonesia, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

The MAS said the trades took place in 2012, when Mr Louis was working as an investment banker at UBS Group AG.

Mr Louis left UBS later that year, and joined Carlyle in 2013 as a managing director of the firm's Asian buyout team, responsible for investments in Indonesia. He became Carlyle's first Indonesia-based deal maker when the firm opened a Jakarta office last year.

Mr Louis agreed to pay a civil penalty of S$434,912 without court action, the MAS statement said. It said he bought Danamon shares on March 30, 2012 through his wife's bank account in Singapore after obtaining non-public information on the proposed acquisition of Danamon by DBS Group Holdings Ltd. After DBS announced its bid for Danamon in April 2012, Mr Louis made a profit of S$173,965 on his trades, the MAS added.

Carlyle has eight investment professionals dedicated to Southeast Asia, with offices in Singapore and Jakarta. Carlyle had invested about US$15.4 billion in equity deals in the Asia Pacific region as of June 30.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr Kaul was the president of Citibank Japan Ltd., part of Citigroup Inc. He was also head of retail banking for Citibank in Asia Pacific.