Business moves
UOB Asset Management has launched a digital advisory service for clients. With UOB AM Invest, clients can submit their financial information, obtain their risk profile and receive an investment portfolio proposal. The platform will generate different portfolio proposals automatically, ranging from very conservative to very aggressive, based on the client’s risk tolerance appetite. The portfolios will be created from a wide range of UOB AM-managed funds and global ETFs spanning various asset classes, such as equities, high-yield and investment grade bonds, as well as money market and short-term fixed income. The new service is offered exclusively to UOB Commercial Banking clients, which are mainly medium-sized companies, and will be subsequently offered to retail investors and across UOB AM’s network in Asia…
Separately, UOB AM has appointed Tokyo-based Fukoku Capital Management as the sub-manager of the firm’s United Japan Growth Fund effective today, according to an announcement from the firm. As the firm will delegate the investment management of substantially all of the fund’s assets to Fukoku Capital, the investment focus and approach of the fund will also be changed…
Mirae Asset is expanding its footprint in India with the launch of an alternative investment fund, according to a Morningstar report. The fund will apply for an alternative investment fund (AIF) license from the Securities and Exchange Board of India and plans to invest in private debt. The alternative investment fund will seek investments from Korean investors looking to invest in India, Junyoung Hong, director and head of businesses at Mirae Asset, said in the report. Many asset management firms, such as Aditya Birla, DSP Blackrock, Edelweiss, HDFC, ICICI Prudential, UTI and Reliance have diversified into the AIF business…
Assets of the two open-ended funds managed by Vietcombank Fund Management, the joint venture firm between Vietnam’s Vietcombank and Franklin Templeton Investments, grew 108% in 2017 to VND 682.9bn ($30.4m), sourced from 2,500 investors. It also announced that the two funds had strong performance in 2017, with the VCBF Tactical Balanced Fund gaining 31.3% last year and the VCBF Blue Chip Fund returning 37.4%…
Global real estate investment management firm Heitman has redeemed OM Asset Management’s ownership interest in Heitman for $110m in a transaction that closed on 5 January. Before the transaction, Heitman was previously 50% owned and controlled by senior professionals of the firm and 50% by an entity controlled by OMAM. Now, Heitman is 100% and controlled by its senior officers, who will continue in their roles and responsibilities. The Chicago-headquartered firm manages around $39bn in assets across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific and has offices in Los Angeles, London, Luxembourg, Frankfurk, Munich, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo and Melbourne…
People moves
State Street Global Advisors has appointed Um Tae Jong in the newly created role of head of Korea. Reporting to June Wong, head of Asia ex-Japan, Um will be responsible for leading the firm’s business strategy and development in Korea. Um has 25 years of experience in the asset management industry. Before joining SSGA, he was MSCI Korea’s managing director and head of Korea, where he oversaw the firm’s businesses across indexes, ESG, IPD, Barra and Risk Matrix…
Vontobel Asset Management has appointed Andreas Faeste as senior institutional relationship manager for Australia and New Zealand to further broaden its client reach in those markets. Faeste will focus his efforts on the distribution of the firm’s fixed income capabilities. Faeste has 20 years of institutional sales experience in the Australian market, extensively in fixed income. Before joining Vontobel, he was engaged by firms such as Voya Investment Management, Perennial Investment Partners and Deutsche Asset Management through his own marketing firm…
Pinebridge Investments has appointed Michael Karpik as New York-based chief operating officer. He will report to CEO Greogry Ehret and will be responsible for the firm’s global operations, finance, compliance, risk management, product management, funds and technology functions. Before joining Pinebridge, he was SSGA’s CEO for Europe, Middle East and Africa, where he was responsible for the firm’s investment management business in the region…
Hedge funds
India- and China-focused hedge funds were the strongest overall performers in the global hedge fund industry in 2017, according to an Evestment report. India-focused funds returned 35% in 2017, compared to 4.53% in 2016, while China-focused hedge funds returned 34.8%, up strongly from the negative performance of -5.39% in 2016. Overall, the global hedge fund industry returned 8.83%, which was higher than the 5.7% return in 2016…
