The excitement, or terror, depending on your point of view, is building. The US election is next week and you would have to be living under the sea in a Jules Verne-inspired world not to know that the poor Americans are faced with an unappealing choice. It is no surprise that at last week’s FSA Investment Forum more than half the attendees in a poll wished there was “another choice”. With that in mind, Spy had the dubious pleasure of tasting some (now rather rare) Trump Vodka this week. Trump’s grandiose gold-decorated brand has left the shelves but a few bottles linger unloved, undrunk and undrinkable. The label claimed his vodka was “Success Distilled” – all it did was give Spy a hangover and it was more a case of “happiness crushed”, which is rather how we may all feel if the man wins next week.
It has come to Spy’s attention that Jupiter has added more sales support in Singapore to assist Madeline Han. No doubt servicing Jupiter’s growing band of supporters requires more muscle power. Zach Yeo, formally an investment councillor within the global consumer group at Citibank, has switched to the other side of the desk and joined the asset management industry. Zach is one of the growing army of industry practitioners who holds the CFA designation. If Spy’s sources are correct, Jupiter is bringing a number of new strategies to market including the Jupiter Global Absolute Return Fund. That particular pool is getting rather crowded!
Long-time head of Zurich Insurance’s international life company in Hong Kong, Andy Robinson, has turned up at wealth manager Village Holdings as a director, Spy has learned. The global offshore international life companies have undergone massive changes in recent years, not least of all in Hong Kong, with changing regulations on commissions and disclosure leading to a changing of the guard at many of the players.
Nordea, which has had such a stellar year in Singapore, is looking to add more sales support to its team, Spy overheard. It is one of a number of firms hunting for new team members that Spy is aware of. Whilst the slow start of the year had every manager on the street a tad gloomy and thinking a bit “2008”, the strong flows in the middle of the year seem to have reminded everyone that the world has not fallen apart. Indeed.
Spy has been keeping an eye on sales at big retail banks. In the spotlight this week is HSBC consumer bank in Hong Kong. The latest figures published on their platform suggest the following funds, excluding HSBC branded strategies of course, took the most assets in September: AB American Income, AB European Income, JP Morgan Asian Total Return, JP Morgan Global Bond and Blackrock Asian Tiger Bond. Of those, the best performer over a year is the Blackrock fund – up 10.47%.
Citibank in Hong Kong has just released its investment strategy for November for investors at the retail bank. Apparently, investors should do the following:
- Buy high-yield bond and financial stocks, which will hedge against rising government bond yields.
- Buy Energy stocks – ride on higher commodity prices.
- Emerging Market assets – likely to benefit from the increasing probability of a Clinton win.
Spy is not 100% sure that this is really enough to assist people get wealthier. Further, the page makes no claim on who within the investment teams make this monthly strategy recommendation, thus it could be the marketing body who needed to fill a space. Spy gives Citi a lot more credit than that, but does sometimes wonder whether consumers actually read and use this stuff in any meaningful way.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, Citigold is back to its old marketing tricks. It is promising to give out S$3,100 if you strike up a new relationship with them*. Yes, there is always an asterisk, isn’t there. Oh, yes, to get this free money you need to give them $250k and then buy some insurance or investment products that, remarkably, make Citi a fair amount of cash.
Those familiar with game theory will be aware of the scenario known as the “prisoners dilemma”. In asset management, there must surely be an “Active and Passive Marketer’s Dilemma.” How do you, as a passive marketer within a firm that has a big active book, push the benefits of lower cost ETFs hoping it won’t cannibalise the higher fee active book? A dilemma indeed! What Spy has noticed, however, is that many of the newer ETFs are not priced nearly as low as the mainstream index products suggest they might be. Caveat emptor, read the small print and all that.
Spy‘s roving photographers have reported that the marketing machines have swung into full gear for the autumn. In Singapore, under the “Let’s influence UBS” space at One Raffles Quay, Old Mutual Global Investors is the star:
In Hong Kong, Amundi is pushing their range of ETFs. The tram companies must be having a field day…
…and Schroders is reminding people about its multi-asset fund above the route map in the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR:
Until next week…
