From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional has appointed Shahril Ridza Ridzuan as its new CEO, according to local media reports. He will be replacing Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, who resigned from the sovereign wealth fund along with the entire board of directors last week. Shahril is currently the CEO of the Employees Provident Fund and will remain as its CEO until he joins Khazanah on 20 August…
Blackrock has appointed Rajat Agrawal as managing director for the Asian private credit team. Based in Mumbai, Agrawal will be responsible for researching about opportunistic credit, including distressed and non-performing loans, as well as sourcing and assessing pipelines in India. Reporting to Neeraj Seth, head of Asian credit, Agarwal is also expected to provide advice to the firm’s Asian and global private credit investment platform. Before Blackrock, Agarwal was DBS India’s executive director for the institutional banking group, where he was responsible for monitoring and recovering NPLs and stressed assets…
Global real estate investment firm Heitman has appointed Brad Fu as Hong Kong-based senior vice president and director for Asia-Pacific acquisitions. Fu will report to Skip Schwartz, managing director for the firm’s Asia-Pacific private real estate equity group. Before Heitman, Fu was director of global real estate investments at Anbang Asset Management, where he was responsible for sourcing and executing international real estate investments in direct asset and corporate transactions…
Lombard Odier Investment Managers has appointed François Meunier as London-based equity portfolio manager for digital innovation. In this newly created role, Meunier will focus on finding global investment opportunities centred on disruption and innovation across sectors. Before Lombard Odier IM, Meunier was at Morgan Stanley, where he was head of technology equity research since 2010…
ING Bank has appointed Liu Yuanyuan as branch manager of ING Bank in Beijing and head of corporate clients for China. She will report to Aarr Jan Den Hartog, country manager for Greater China and Mongolia, and will be part of of the Greater China management team. Before ING, Liu was Deutsche Bank’s Beijing branch manager and head of corporate banking for North Asia…
Product news
Goldman Sachs Asset Management has launched a US-focused quantitative equity fund for retail investors in Singapore. The Goldman Sachs US Core Equity Portfolio will be managed by the firm’s quantitative investment strategies (QIS) team, which makes use of technology to analyse 13,000 stocks daily. The fund adds to two quantitative strategies that GSAM offers to Singapore retail investors: the Core Equity Portfolio and the Europe Core Equity Portfolio. In total, the firm has 18 funds available in the Singapore retail market…
Taiwan-based Cathay Securities Investment Trust has launched the Cathay FTSE China A150 ETF. The product was listed on the Taiwan bourse on 3 August. The index of the ETF, FTSE China A150 Index, includes A-shares from the Shanhai and Shenzhen stock exchange and are screened by market value and liquidity. In total, the Taiwan Stock Exchange has 110 ETFs listed on its main board…
Twenty of the 24 top reviewed products in July among Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan) investors on Evestment’s institutional research platform are mostly equity funds, according to the firm’s monthly viewership report. Of the 20 equity funds, nine of them are US-focused funds. To see June’s most viewed funds, click here…
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has been mandated by the World Bank to be the sole arranger of the first bond globally to be created, allocated, transferred and managed using blockchain technology. The bond, the Australian dollar Kangaroo bond termed ‘bond-i”, will be issued and distributed on a blockchain platform operated by the World Bank and CBA in Washington and Sydney…
