A SHEFFIELD HAWORTH PUBLICATION ASIAN ASSET MANAGEMENT A summary featuring people news, industry updates with market trends and analysis Q4 2019 Nick Aylwin-Foster Linda Chang George Windsor Emma Quan
Q4 2019, Asset Management Overview – Asia
MARKET OVERVIEW
2019
In what has been a turbulent year, whether it be the backdrop of the US-China trade war, prolonged protests in Hong Kong, ongoing regulatory change across the region, or the persistent fears of recession, hiring in Asia has been relatively buoyant. Although there has been less activity in business development, particularly amongst traditional asset managers, various firms have hired for specialist roles targeting specific client segments (insurance) or alternative products and client servicing has remained active. On the investment side, Public Equities and Fixed Income have been active, notably in research roles covering China or the Consumer/TMT sectors as has Alternatives, particularly in illiquid strategies, with new entrants and growth in existing teams.
Q4 NEWS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ▪ Saxo Markets and Lion Global Investors have launched a Market Overview new investment platform in Singapore which will allow investors to directly access LGI funds and single securities Business Development offered by Saxo.
▪ Institutional ▪ Eastspring Investments has acquired a 50.1% stake in the Thai asset manager, Thanachart Fund Management, further ▪ Wholesale expanding its presence in Thailand.
ESG ▪ CSOP Asset Management, the Hong Kong-based firm, has established an office in Singapore. Leadership ▪ Eightstone and Oclaner Asset Management have merged to China become Eightstone Oclaner with USD1.1b in assets. The firm will be headed by Cyril Malapert as CEO. Investment and Product ▪ China Southern Asset Management has launched its first ▪ Equities ESG fund, adding to the growing number of products available following the guidelines issued by AMAC. ▪ Fixed Income ▪ SAC Investment Management has launched a fund ▪ Private Markets & Hedge management business in Singapore to complement its Funds corporate finance offering that will provide funding to pre- IPO small and medium-sized enterprises. Contact Details
“In what has been a turbulent year… hiring in
Asia has been relatively buoyant.”
▪ UOB Asset Management is set to acquire VAM Vietnam Fund Management Joint Stock Company helping to expand into Southeast Asia.
▪ Bank of Communications has signed a strategic partnership with Bloomberg to provide a co-branded Bond Index for the Chinese market. This will also see them collaborate on financial data services, regulatory compliance and market-making.
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Q4 2019, Asset Management Overview – Asia
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
INSTITUTIONAL
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Eaton Vance has hired Changwon Kim to focus on South Korea. He will be based in Singapore and joins from Robeco.
Janus Henderson has hired Jessica Choong as a Director to focus on Southeast Asia. She was previously with Schroders.
Landmark Partners has hired Rebecca Wu as a Director in their Investor Relations team. She joins from Kerogen.
Invesco has hired Jaijit Kumar as Head of Asia Insurance Solutions. He joins from Aviva Investors.
Rayliant Global Advisors, the Hong Kong headquartered firm, has hired Kyle Theodore as a Senior Director and Head of Consultant Relations, based in Newport Beach.
WHOLESALE
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Amundi has hired Albert Tse as Head of Business Development for South Asia. He joins from Schroders and will replace Marie-Pascale Bonhomme who moves to Beijing as Head of Business Development and Partnerships North Asia.
Baillie Gifford has hired Edward Lo. He joins from Pictet where he was part of the intermediary sales team for Greater China.
BNP Paribas Asset Management has hired Ignace Nguyen to cover Private Banks in Singapore. He joins from M&G Investments where he was a member of the intermediary sales team.
Schroders’ Showbhik Kalra, previously Asia-Pacific Head of Intermediaries and Product has left the firm. Amy Cho will assume responsibility for these functions.
Value Partners has promoted Wallace Tsang to Head of Intermediaries, Asia-Pacific.
Eastspring Investments has hired Joyce Chan as General Manager and Head of Intermediaries Hong Kong. She was previously Head of Intermediary Business Development for PineBridge based in Hong Kong.
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
RELATED HIRES
MSCI has appointed Doug Walls as Head of Index Products Asia-Pacific. He joins from Fidelity and will be based in Hong Kong.
Natixis Investment Managers has hired Xiaofei Guo as Director of Green and Sustainable Finance, Asia- Pacific. She joins from ING’s sustainable finance team.
Fidelity International has hired Flora Wang as Director, Sustainable Investing. She will be based in Hong Kong and was previously with BlackRock.
Nuveen has hired Georgette Lee-Tong as Head of Client Marketing, Asia-Pacific. She joins from MUFG and will be based in Hong Kong.
YEAR END OVERVIEW
A look at some of the hiring patterns among key areas over the past year. Data sourced from hires reported by Sheffield Haworth in previous newsletters and does not represent all hiring in 2019.
SALES AND DISTRIBUTION HIRES
Most of the hiring in 2019 has been at the country specific or sub-regional level, consistent with the ongoing theme of specialisation and responding to a more sophisticated set of needs from clients. South Korea and China continue to be a focus for many asset managers.
Institutional Sales by Geography Wholesale Distribution by Geography
3 6 3 2 4
2 2
9 5 2 1 6 3 2
South Korea Southeast Asia Asia ex-Japan South Asia Asia ex-Japan Singapore
Japan Hong Kong Singapore North Asia Hong Kong
North Asia Australia China
At 50, the total number of reported hires has decreased compared to 2018 (60). This was broken into institutional sales at 33 (41) and wholesale at 17 (19). Activity in Q3 and Q4 was lower and may reflect the
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
heightened concerns going into the second half of the year and a noticeable drop off in Hong Kong as firms paused hiring plans in the uncertainty surrounding the protests. The graph below illustrates hiring patterns throughout the year against 2018.
Institutional & Wholesale Hires 2019/18
Q4 '19 Q4 '18 Q3 '19 Q3 '18 Q2 '19 Q2 '18 Q1 '19 Q1 '18
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Institutional Wholesale
LEADERSHIP
Leadership hiring has remained an active area in 2019 albeit at a more muted level compared to 2018. Hires have included both regional and country ‘Heads’. Legg Mason, M&G Investments, Eastspring Investments and UBS Asset Management are some of the notable firms to have replaced their regional heads. In comparison to 2018, none of the reported hires came from an external sales team, rather from existing leadership positions either internally or externally. This tallies with previous commentary in these newsletters on the theme of asset managers increasing their infrastructure in the region outside of distribution with a need for individuals who have experience tying multiple business lines together.
Various country head hires were made in Heads of Asia Hires 2019 by 2019. Examples such as BNP Paribas AM Background hiring a new head of Taiwan and Japan respectively, Franklin Templeton promoting a new Head of Singapore and MSIM 3 3 appointing a Head of Korea. These types of hires will likely continue into 2020 as asset managers deepen their coverage and target specific, strategic markets more 2 directly. It will also have the added benefit of providing a deeper bench of senior 4 management talent when firms will inevitably need to think about succession 4 planning and the continued ‘localisation’ of their staff in the region.
Internal Leadership Internal Investment Internal Sales External Leadership External Investment
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES
Lloyd George Management (HK) Limited has hired Bratin Sanyal as CIO. He was previously with Cathay Conning.
Legg Mason has named Andy Sowerby as Head of Asia- Pacific ex-Japan. He will replace Lennie Lim who is retiring.
M&G Investments has hired Loretta Ng from Eastspring Investments as Head of Asia. She will be based in Singapore and relocates from Taiwan.
Principal Global Investors’ Head of Asia ex-Japan, Celestine Khoo, has left the firm. Kirk West who is currently based in Sydney as Head of International (ex- US) Business and Clients will assume leadership for the sales teams and offices in the region.
Brightsphere Investments has hired Michael Han as Head of Asia. He joins from China Life Franklin Asset Management where he was Head of Business Development. He will be based in Hong Kong.
CHINA
There were several interesting developments in the onshore market in 2019. Q2 saw D.E Shaw Group granted a PFM licence followed by BEA Union China Related Hires Investments also receiving one in Q4. Regulatory change continued with the scrapping of the QFII and RQFII quota limits in Q3 and the first approval of a majority-owned JV in Q4. With further developments 4 4 anticipated in 2020 there is a significant likelihood of increased hiring, particularly with the advent of the ‘FMC’ licence in 2020, a year earlier than expected. 4 Amongst international managers hiring into China- specific roles has been quieter in comparison to 2018, although Baillie Gifford, Van Eck and Manulife 9 AM were notable in hiring for leadership positions onshore. Business development hiring was much lower, but so was the number of new PFM licences awarded which drove much of the activity in the Investment Sales Leadership Other previous year.
GENERAL NEWS:
China has approved China AMC, E Fund Asset Management, Harvest Fund Management, China Southern Fund, and Zhong Ou Asset Management for an Investment Advisory license. These will allow them to tailor investment options for clients.
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
BEA Union Investment Management, a Hong Kong-German JV between Bank of East Asia and Union Asset Management Holding, has been granted a PFM license.
China has approved Amundi as the first foreign majority-owned asset management joint venture. Amundi will hold a 55% stake in the JV with BOC Wealth Management. It is set to be launched in the second half of 2020.
China’s Ant Financial Services Group and Vanguard Group have formed a JV to provide wealth management services to retail investors for a minimum investment of 800RMB.
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Baillie Gifford has opened an office in Shanghai under the investment management wholly foreign-owned enterprise license. They have hired Amy Wang as Head of China. She joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments.
Fidelity International has appointed Daisy Ho as President of China. She will relocate to Shanghai from Hong Kong.
Vanguard has appointed Yan Pu as a Managing Director and Head of Investment Management Group for China. She will relocate to Shanghai from Hong Kong.
APG has set up an office in Shanghai and Beijing and hired Gregory Suen as Head of China Fixed Income (based in Hong Kong). He joins from HSBC GAM.
INVESTMENT AND PRODUCT
Investment hires have been a consistent theme throughout the year as firms look to increase their coverage of the region and introduce Asia-focused strategies. Investment research remains active and will likely continue into 2020. Another interesting theme is the continued efforts on behalf of traditional asset managers to develop an alternative product offering. Examples include Fullerton Fund Management setting up a Private Equity team in Asia, M&G Investments relocating an alternatives origination team to Asia and Aberdeen Standard Investments increasing their capability in Real Estate following their purchase of Orion Partners in Q1. Alternative managers have also been active with various investment hires.
EQUITIES
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Arya Partners has hired Lora Chow as a Portfolio Manager in Hong Kong. She was previously an Equity Analyst with Balyasny.
AllianceBernstein has hired Fiona Wong in Hong Kong as an Equity Trader from Invesco.
Invesco has hired Thomas Chan as part of their Greater China Equities team. He joins from BOCI Prudential AM where he was a fund manager.
T. Rowe Price has hired Bill Bai from Destination Partners. He was previously a TMT Investment Analyst.
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
APG Asset Management has hired Sue Xu and Robert Potts as Investment Analysts. Sue joins from China Asset Management Company and Robert from Arisaig Partners. They have also hired Prashant Periwal as a Portfolio Manager from USS.
Neuberger Berman has hired a Japan-based Equities team led by Keita Kubota. He joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments where he was Deputy Head of Japan Equities. He is joined by two analysts. The fund will focus on small and mid-cap companies and ESG investing to improve performance.
Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has hired Richard Chung. He was previously Head of Equities at Deutsche. They have also hired Victor Phua and Kainan Xing from Deutsche Bank’s Program Trading desk.
Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has hired Ashish Goyal and Kannan Venkataramani to lead their capital markets team in Singapore. Both individuals join from NN Investment Partners.
FIXED INCOME
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
PIMCO has hired Annisa Lee as Head of Credit Research. She joins from Nomura where she was Head of Asia ex-Japan Flow Credit Research.
Legal & General Investment Management has hired Kok Onn Yong as Head of Asia High Yield Research in Hong Kong. He joins from BAML where he was part of the credit research team.
MULTI ASSET SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Amundi has relocated Florian Neto from Paris to Hong Kong. He will become Head of Multi-Asset North Asia and a Portfolio Manager for Multi-Asset.
PRIVATE MARKETS AND HEDGE FUNDS
SELECT PEOPLE MOVES:
Hines, the real estate firm has named Lee Timmins as CIO for Asia. He was previously Chief Executive for Eurasia and was based in Moscow but will establish a new office in Asia.
Carlyle has hired John Kim as a Managing Director in the Asia buyout team. He will be based in Korea and was previously with Goldman Sachs.
APG Asset Management has set up a team in Hong Kong to run its natural resources portfolios. They have hired Ben Avery as a Senior Portfolio Manager. He joins from National Australia Bank.
ADM Capital has hired Yue Lu as a Managing Director. He was previously Head of Corporate Finance at Best Inc.
Nuveen has hired Samson Ng as a Global Product Manager focusing on alternative solutions. He joins from Schroders.
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
Balyasny has hired Lynette Feng as an Investment Analyst covering Pan-Asia Consumer and TMT sectors. She joins from Central Asset Investments.
Adamas has hired Brock Silvers as a Managing Director and Richard Clarke as Chief Operating Officer. Brock joins from Kaiyuan Capital and Richard from Monex Europe.
Allianz Real Estate has appointed Megan Walters as Global Head of Research. She will be based in Singapore before relocating to London.
Oaktree Capital Management has appointed James Lim as a Managing Director who will focus on real estate direct lending, based in Singapore. He was previously Chief Executive of CapitaLand Financial.
OMERS has hired Jeffrey French as an Investment Director. He joins from BlackStone and will be based in Singapore.
M&G Investments has established a team in Singapore to focus on credit and alternatives origination. Matthew O’Sullivan will lead the team. He was previously based in London as Co-Head of Asset-Backed Securities Credit Research and will be joined by Gareth Anderson.
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Q4, 2019 Asset Management Overview, Asia
Nick Aylwin-Foster e: [email protected] Director t: +852 3008 0508
Linda Chang e: [email protected] Senior Associate t: +852 3008 0608
George Windsor e: [email protected] Senior Associate t: +852 3008 0580
Emma Quan e: [email protected] Associate t: +852 3008 0621
The information contained in this document has been compiled by Sheffield Haworth from sources believed to be reliable and is presented in good faith, but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made as to its accuracy, completeness or correctness. This document does not constitute or form part of, and should not be construed as, advice. Sheffield Haworth accepts no liability whatsoever from any consequential loss or damage arising from any use of this document or its contents. This document may not be reproduced, redistributed or passed on to any other person or published, in whole or in part, for any purpose, without the prior written consent of Sheffield Haworth.
This is a private and confidential document prepared by Sheffield Haworth