STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK
People moves
M&G Investments has appointed Jaclyn Lim as Singapore-based head of institutional sales for Asia (ex-Japan). In this newly created role, Lim will be leading teams based in Hong Kong and Singapore to service clients across Asia. She will report to Berny Lin, head of distribution for Asia (ex-Japan). Previously, Lim was at Pimco, where she was responsible for business development and servicing institutional relationships across Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand and intermediary relationships for Southeast Asia (ex-Singapore)…
Fund launches
Legg Mason Global Asset Management has launched the Legg Mason Martin Currie Asia Pacific ex Japan Real Income Fund to retail investors in Hong Kong, according to a statement from the firm. The fund, which is managed by Legg Mason affiliate Martin Currie, adopts an income generation-based strategy. The fund invests in a blend of diverse real assets across real estate investment trusts, utilities and infrastructure…
ESG
A report from Morningstar reveals that big Asian markets score poorly on sustainability in general. In particular, China lands in the bottom quintile among the 48 developed and emerging markets assessed for how companies in the local markets are managing ESG-related risks. The main issue is poor corporate governance, with companies like Alibaba, JD.com and Tencent underperforming their peers. On the flipside, surprisingly, Hong Kong was found to have the best sustainability profile of any non-European market, while Taiwan’s equity market also carries one of the top sustainability profiles among the 48 markets assessed…
Institutions
Institutional investors in Asia-Pacific are more confident than their global peers about meeting short- and long-term investment objectives against the backdrop of volatility caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a State Street survey. Around 38% of Asian institutions believe they will meet their short-term objectives, compared with only 24% globally. Longer-term, 85% believe they will meet their investment objectives, versus 56% globally. “It appears that Asian investors are more confident about meeting their investment objectives largely because some countries in the region have contained the impact of the virus and the pandemic is at a late stage compared with other parts of the world,” Ian Martin, global head of asset owner segment at State Street, said in a statement. The survey also highlighted that 88% of institutional investors in the region are confident that their asset managers are able to navigate the crisis. Only 15% of them feel their managers have underestimated the impact and severity of the crisis…
Regulation
Hong Kong’s SFC has begun a two-month consultation on proposals to amend the Code on Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits) to provide Hong Kong Reits with more flexibility in making investments. The proposed changes include allowing Reits to make investments in minority-owned properties and in property development projects in excess of the existing limit of 10% of gross asset value (GAV) subject to unitholders’ approval, as well as increasing the borrowing limit for Reits to 50% from 50% of GAV…
Compliance Asia Consulting, a Singapore-based compliance consulting firm in Singapore, has partnered with the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) to create content for iLearn, an online portal providing curated training programmes for asset management professionals in the Lion City. The Monetary Authority of Singapore requires most asset management personnel to complete at least six hours of compliance and ethics training a year. The launch of the service comes at a time when many investment managers are exploring alternative avenues to further their expertise during the quieter business hours of the Covid-19 period…
