STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK
People moves
Jupiter Asset Management has received shareholder approval for the acquisition of Merian Global Investors. With the acquisition, the team in Asia will increase to 16 people from 13 with the addition of two senior sales staff joining Jupiter from Merian, including Karen Cheng, director for North Asia sales, and Richard Mo, head of China and Taiwan. Both will report to Peter Swarbreck, head of Asia-Pacific at Jupiter. Currently, Jupiter has two offices in Asia, one in Hong Kong and one in Singapore. Jupiter announced its acquisition of Merian in February and expects the acquisition to be completed on 1 July…
Federated Hermes has appointed Kunjal Gala as lead portfolio manager for the Hermes Global Emerging Markets Fund and the Hermes Global Emerging Markets SMID Equity Fund, effective 1 September, according to a statement from the firm. Gary Greenberg will remain global head of emerging markets but will step back from day-to-day management of portfolios. He will continue to oversee the team, asset allocation and stock selection until his retirement in 2022, which was first announced in November last year. Kunjal has been co-portfolio manager of the GEM Fund since 2016 and the GEM SMID Equity Fund since 2018. He has been working with Greenberg and the emerging markets team over the past eight years on developing and implementing the funds’ processes…
First State Investments has appointed two independent non-executive directors, Michelle Tredenick and Richard Wastcoat. Tredenick has held senior roles at National Australia Bank, MLC and Suncorp. Currently, she serves on several listed and private company boards, including Insurance Australia Group and Bank of Queensland. London-based Westcoat has 25 years of executive experience in the US, Europe and Asia. He also has at least 10 years of experience as an independent non-executive and board member for asset management, banking and wealth management and fintech firms. He spent 25 years at Fidelity and was CEO for its UK mutual fund business…
Business moves
Amundi has launched eight ETFs in Europe tracking responsible investing equity indices. These include four equity ETFs (World, European Monetary Union (EMU), Europe and the US) tracking the MSCI ESG Universal Select Index; three (World, Europe and the US) tracking the MSCI Leaders Select 5% Issuer Capped Index, and one tracking the MSCI EMU SRI 5% Issuer Capped Index…
Ninety One has announced the name change of the Investec Global Strategy Fund to the Ninety One Global Strategy Fund. The change reflects the firm’s new name following its listing on the London Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as part of the demerger from the Investec Group. All funds registered in Hong Kong and Singapore are now carrying the new name “Ninety One” in replacement of “Investec”, the statement noted. Apart from the name change, the investment objectives, management and all other aspects of the funds will remain unchanged…
Alts
Global real estate assets under management hit a record $3.6trn at the end of 2019, according to a report published by Anrev, Inrev, and Ncreif. In Asia-Pacific, total real estate AUM amounted to $602.2bn, up from $586.2bn in 2018. Managers focused on Asia-Pacific contributed 16.7% to total AUM, while North American strategies accounted for the highest percentage at 36.6%. This is followed by Europe, with 33.8% of the total AUM. Capita Land remains to be the largest Apac-focused real estate manager, with $62.5bn in assets allocated in the region, followed by Ara Asset Management, with $60bn…
