FROM THE PRESS RELEASE DESK THIS WEEK…
People moves
Franklin Templeton Investments has named Dora Seow as country head of Singapore, following the departure of Adam Quaife, regional head for Southeast Asia, who will be relocating to Australia in December. Seow, who has been with the firm since 2001, will continue her oversight of the firm’s business in Thailand, Philippines and Brunei. She has held various leadership roles within the firm, including head of the portfolio administration group in Asia as well as head of the institutional distribution channel for Southeast Asia. Avi Satwalekar remains as the country head for Malaysia and chairman of Franklin Templeton’s joint venture in Vietnam, Vietcombank Fund Management, the firm noted…
BNY Mellon Investment Management has added to its third-party distribution team in Singapore and Hong Kong with two appointments. Singapore-based Vivienne Lim and Billy Chung in Hong Kong join the firm as intermediary business development managers, both reporting to Nicolas Kopitsis, head of third party distribution for Asia-Pacific (ex-Japan). Before BNY Mellon IM, Lim was a vice president for business development at Legg Mason Asset Management, while Chung was at Invesco in Hong Kong, where he was a senior manager for intermediary sales…
Aberdeen Standard Investments has appointed Sai Min Chow as head of investment research for Asia-Pacific real estate. Sai will lead the firm’s real estate research across Asia-Pacific and provide investment insight and analysis for the firm’s global and regional portfolios. The appointment follows ASI’s expansion of its direct real estate business in Asia-Pacific this year, with the acquisition of Orion Partners in February and the establishment of a joint venture with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in June to invest in residential real estate in Japan and other mature markets across the region. Sai reports to Andrew Allen, London-based global head of investment research for real estate. Before ASI, Sai was at Nomura Securities in Singapore for at least 10 years, most recently as an executive director for Singapore and regional-listed real estate investment research…
The JP Morgan High Yield Fund will have a new portfolio-manager roster, according to a Morningstar report. Thomas Hauser, Jeffrey Lovell and Robert Cook have joined the team, while Chris Musbach, Alexander Sammarco and Michael Schlembach are no longer named as managers. Bill Morgan and James Shanahan, who have been with the fund for two decades each, remain in place, although Morgan is expected to retire from the firm at the end of February next year. Morgan also manages the JP Morgan US High Yield Plus Bond, which is an SFC-registered fund…
Comgest emerging markets equity fund manager Galina Besedina will be leaving the firm at the end of October 2019, according to a Morningstar report. She is one of the five managers who run the Comgest Growth GEM Promising Companies, which is authorised by MAS in Singapore. Besedina joined the firm in 2008 and has since involved in researching emerging Europe stocks and was named a co-manager of the fund in 2013. Although Morningstar sees this as a negative development given Besedina’s level of experience and knowledge of the product, it believes that the fund will remain in good hands as portfolio management is a collective effort at Comgest. In total, the global emerging markets team has around 19 members with an average of 15 years of investment experience…
Trade war woes
Asia’s high net worth individuals are more concerned about the ongoing trade dispute between China and the US compared to their Western counterparts, according to a survey conducted by RBC Wealth Management. In Asia, 39% of HNWIs cited “cross border trade/tariffs” as a leading concern, which compares to only 27% of Western HNWIs. Similarly, investors in Asia show a much higher degree of concern about global economic uncertainty, with 56% selecting it as one of their leading concerns versus 41% of their western peers…
Hedge funds
All segments of the global hedge fund industry have returned positively year-to-date, even though the Hedge Fund Aggregate Index was negative in August. Managed futures funds have been the best-performing sector, according to data from Evestment. In terms of country exposure, China-focused hedge funds have become the strongest performing segment, returning around 15% this year…
Brexit worries?
The Securities and Futures Commission and UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have signed an addendum to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) governing the framework for the UK-Hong Kong Mutual Recognition of Funds (MRF) scheme. The addendum is to ensure that the MRF arrangement will continue to operate in a smooth manner after UK’s withdrawal from the European Union…
China bond trading up
Trading through China’s Bond Connect programme last month reached RMB 338.6bn ($47.8bn), which is the highest monthly amount since the programme began, according to data from the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. The trading volume was up nearly 70% compared to the previous month, it added. There was a total of 3,338 trade tickets, with an average daily turnover of RMB15.49bn. Since the programme began in 2017, around 1,244 institutional investors have participated in the Bond Connect, with 110 new users in August…
