From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Fidelity International has appointed Romain Boscher as London-based global chief investment officer for equities. He will report to Bart Grenier, global head of asset management, and will be a member of the firm’s global operating committee. Before Fidelity, Boscher was Amundi Asset Management’s head of equities for the last seven years…
Jupiter Asset Management has appointed Talib Sheikh as head of multi-asset strategy. Reporting to chief investment officer Stephen Pearson, Sheikh is responsible for building out the multi-asset business by offering investment capabilities to the firm’s retail, wealth and institutional client base globally. Before Jupiter AM, he was a managing director and portfolio manager at JP Morgan Asset Management, where he was part of the firm’s multi-asset solutions team…
Willis Towers Watson has appointed Roger Steel as managing director for Hong Kong and Macau. He will be responsible for deepening the firm’s client relationships across Greater China. Before Willis Towers Watson, he held key leadership roles, including CEO for Sun Life Hong Kong…
Asset and wealth management consulting firm Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has appointed Michael Chaille as executive director for Asia. In this role, Chaille is responsible for extending Alpha’s consulting service offering to asset and wealth managers across the region, particularly in Hong Kong and Singapore. Chaille has 17 years of consulting experience in the asset management sector – including working at Arthur Andersen and MA Partners, as well as establishing his own consulting boutique, Newtone Associates, which was sold to Chappuis Halder & Co in 2013…
Best asset managers?
Alliance Bernstein and Allianz Global Investors have been rated as the top asset managers in Asia when it comes to overall quality, according to a survey conducted by Greenwich Associates. The firm interviewed 150 gatekeepers at large institutions across Asia, including retail and private banks, insurers, asset managers, securities brokers and independent financial advisors…
Richest cities
Five out of the top 10 cities for the most number of high net worth individuals are in Asia, according to a report by New World Wealth. They are Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai…
Bonds
Bloomberg will be making changes to its Bloomberg Barclays fixed income indices in June to include Indonesian rupiah-denominated debt in the Global Aggregate Index for the first time. The Global Aggregate Index is a flagship measurement of global investment grade bonds from 24 local currency markets. Other Asian currencies included in the index are the Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Korean won, New Zealand dollar, Singaporean dollar, Malaysian ringgit and Thai baht…
Indonesia has become the first Asian country to sell “green bonds” globally. The country launched yesterday a five-year green sukuk bond, which also complies with Islamic finance norms. Green bond issuance has reached $155.5bn in 2017 and could reach $250bn-$300bn this year, according to research from Climate Bond Initiative…
Hedge funds
Investors globally allocated around $14.12bn to hedge funds in January, the industry’s largest start to a year since before the global financial crisis in 2008, according to an Evestment report. Equity strategies continued to receive new allocations, with a preference for global exposure over the US, and developed markets exposure over emerging markets. The trends in emerging markets may be surprising given their outsized returns in 2017, but may be an indication of profit taking or portfolio rebalancing among some investors…
