STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK
People moves
Aberdeen Standard Investments has appointed Vishal Sharma as Sydney-based institutional director for Australia and New Zealand. Sharma will be responsible for building ASI’s relationships with institutional investors in Australia and New Zealand, including superannuation funds and insurance companies. He will report jointly to Andrew Hendry, head of distribution for Asia-Pacific, and Brett Jollie, managing director for Australia. Sharma was previously an investment consultant at manager research and selection firm Bfinance, where he supported institutional investors with investment implementation…
HSBC Global Asset Management has appointed Michael Ridley as senior responsible investment specialist. He will report to Melissa McDonald, head of responsible investment. In this newly-created role, Ridley will be responsible for building and driving the firm’s sustainable impact proposition. Previously, Ridley was global head of ESG fixed income research at HSBC’s global banking and markets business…
Business moves
Manulife Investment Management has acquired 49% in Mumbai-based Mahindra Asset Management from Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (Mahindra Finance). Manulife has invested $35m in the joint venture, which will enable the firm to expand its fund offerings in India. The joint venture will bring together Mahindra Finance’s domestic market strength and Manulife’s global asset management capabilities. Mahindra AM manages 13 investment schemes and has at least 200,000 customer accounts across the country…
Robos
Hong Kong-based Magnum Research, the firm behind robo-advisory platform Aqumon, announced that it had a 317% increase in account openings during the first quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to a statement from the firm. Meanwhile, its B2B business has ongoing projects with CMB Wing Lung Bank, AIA, Bank of China International, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, China Resources Bank and China AMC. The firm added that it has also concluded its series pre-B round of financing in March, and with this new injection of capital, it will continue to focus on acquiring talent for investment research, business and product development…
The Investment Management Association of Singapore has launched an online portal of curated training programmes for investment management professionals, according to a statement from the association. The launch of the online portal, “i-Learn”, comes at a time when most businesses have come to a halt as employees continue to work from home amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The portal provides e-learning modules on ethics, rules and regulations that are accredited by the Institute of Banking and Finance and fulfills the continuous professional development required under the Monetary Authority of Singapore…
