EURIZON CREATES HEAD OF ASIA DISTRIBUTION ROLE
Italy-headquartered Eurizon Asset Management, the asset management arm of banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, has appointed Dickson Man in the newly created role of Hong Kong-based head of Asia distribution, according to a company statement.
The hire follows an expansion of the firm’s investment and operations team in Asia last year, led by Sean Debow, CEO of Eurizon Capital Asia in Hong Kong, the statement said. The team in Asia manages the firm’s emerging markets and China A-share equity strategies.
Man, who joined the firm last month, will report to Debow. Man was a relationship manager at T Rowe Price and was previously at Blackrock and Ninety One.
Eurizon has had a presence in Asia since 2007 when it acquired 40% of Penghua Fund Management, an asset management company based in Shenzhen with at least $110bn in AUM.
Eurizon first operated in Hong Kong as a branch in 2012 and was incorporated in 2015 as a hub to support the firm’s business in the region. In 2016, Intesa Sanpaolo set up a China wealth management business, Yi Tsai, to drive distribution of its products in China.
Globally, Eurizon manages around $500bn globally, according to the statement.
VONTOBEL AM HIRES FOR APAC MARKETING
Vontobel Asset Management has appointed Fiona Liefooghe as Singapore-based marketing manager for Asia-Pacific.
Liefooghe will lead the firm’s marketing efforts in the region, raising awareness of the firm’s brand and range of investment funds among investors.
Before Vontobel AM, Liefooghe was at DWS, where she was head of marketing for Asia ex-Japan.
The firm has been actively hiring new staff in the past few months, with most of them also coming from DWS, including Benny Gay, Vontobel AM’s Singapore-based head of intermediary clients for Asia; Jeremy Tan, relationship manager for intermediary clients; and Mavis Huang, Hong Kong-based relationship manager for global and regional private banks.
Other new joiners are Cosmo Zhang and Pius Yang Xue, who are Hong Kong-based research analysts for the firm’s emerging markets fixed income team.
Vontobel AM employs 23 investment, sales and client service professionals in Asia, and has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore (which just opened in October), Sydney and Tokyo, according to the statement.
BNY MELLON IM NAMES NEW JAPAN CHIEF
BNY Mellon Investment Management has appointed Katsutoshi Endo as its new representative director and president for Japan, according to a statement from the firm.
Endo will replace Shogo Yamaguchi, who has been named as director and chairman of the firm. Both appointments come into effect on 1 April.
Endo has been the firm’s head of retail sales and marketing since joining BNY Mellon IM in Japan in 2016. Before that, he spent 12 years at AllianceBernstein Japan, where he held various senior roles, including deputy head of Japan client group, head of institutional sales and head of product management.
“Japan is a strategically important market for us, where we have been present for more than 22 years,” Matt Oomen, global head of distribution at BNY Mellon IM, said in the statement.
BNY Mellon IM managed $2.2bn in assets globally as of the end of December, according to the statement.
SCHRODERS EXPANDS PRIVATE ASSETS TEAM
Schroders has made a series of senior appointments in Asia-Pacific and globally to further bolster private assets capability, according to a press statement.
In APAC, the firm has expanded its Australian private debt team with the hire of Tim Hallam as portfolio manager last month. He is part of the team responsible for growing and managing Schroders’ private debt capability in Australia.
He reports to Nicole Kidd, head of private debt for Australia, who joined Schroders in September last year to develop the firm’s private debt capabilities in the country.
Hallam was at Northern Australian Infrastructure Facility, where he was responsible for the origination and execution of loans benefiting Northern Australia.
In London, Sophie Van Oosterom also joined last month as global head of real estate and will be responsible for overseeing the growth of Schroders’ direct and indirect real estate business. Previously, she was at CBRE Global Investors, with experiences of overseeing all operations, investment strategy and performance, underwriting and programme development in the EMEA region.
Chantale Pelletier was named global head of infrastructure in private assets. Based in Paris, Pelletier focuses on leading the growth and development of the firm’s infrastructure investment platform across a range of sectors, such as transport, renewables, energy, digital infrastructure and utilities. She brings around 20 years of experience in building and managing infrastructure investment portfolios at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec.
Both Van Oosterom and Pelletier report to Georg Wunderlin, global head of private assets.
The firm has also appointed Natalie Howard, who will be joining as head of real estate debt. Based in London, she will be responsible for building a full service, real estate debt platform offering clients the complete range of risk and return investing throughout the real estate debt spectrum. She will report to Oosterom.
