From the press release desk this week…
People moves
CIMB Principal Asset Management has appointed Juan Ignacio Eyzaguirre Baraona as the firm’s new Asean CEO, subject to the approval of the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Immigration Department. Baraona will oversee the group’s businesses across the region, including its traditional and Islamic units in Malaysia, as well as its asset management businesses in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. Baraona will replace Alejandro Echegorri, who has been appointed as chief investment officer for Principal International for Asia…
Franklin Templeton has hired from Singapore-based Fullerton Fund Management to expand its emerging market equity team. Joining the US fund house are Jason Zhu as Shanghai-based managing director and director of portfolio management for China, and Shih Yu-Jeh as Singapore-based portfolio manager and deputy director of research. Zhu will assume research and portfolio management responsibilities for China A-shares, while Shih will focus on Asia. Before Franklin Templeton, Zhu was director and head of China equities at Fullerton; Shih was the lead manager of several Asia-focused equity funds…
Hong Kong and China
Hong Kong investors expect lower returns compared with their Asia peers, according to a survey conducted by Schroders. The average expected annual returns for Hong Kong investors is 9.3%, slightly lower than their global peers (9.9%) and much lower than their Asia counterparts (11.8%). Despite the relatively low expectations of Hong Kong investors, their overall anticipated returns exceed the 7.9% per annum generated by the Hong Kong stock market. This suggests Hong Kong investors are still over-optimistic about their investments…
China’s mutual fund AUM grew 15.6% over the first nine months of 2018 to surpass RMB13trn ($1.9trn), according to a Cerulli Associates report. Net inflows were RMB1.6trn during this period, supported mainly by net inflows of RMB1.4trn to money market funds, which remain the most-favoured products with AUM accounting for around 62% of the total. The declining yield of these safe-haven products, partially due to tightened regulations on liquidity and risk management, did not stop investors rushing into them amid economic and stock market downturn…
Responsible investing
Man Group has introduced a responsible investment (RI) framework and an exclusion list for all its managed funds. This is designed to establish a baseline requirement of ESG standards, with three categories into which all funds will fall: the base standard; a standard for funds with a further level of RI integration; and a standard for RI-dedicated funds. Meanwhile, the RI exclusion list designates sectors that will be excluded from Man Group’s RI-integrated and RI-dedicated funds. These include: controversial weapons; tobacco; and those that produce coal and coal-based energy. The firm has also established an RI exclusions committee which will focus on developing guidelines to direct the exclusions…
Alternatives
The global hedge fund industry returned -0.31% in November, bringing the year-to-date figures to -2.81% and marking the fourth consecutive month of negative industry returns, according to Evestment’s hedge fund performance data. These numbers are in stark contrast to the positive 8.96% aggregate return the industry saw last year, and while all segments were positive in 2017, the vast majority of fund types turned red so far this year…
Source: Evestment
Natixis Investment Managers has launched Flexstone Partners, a global private equity (PE) manager that brings together three existing PE affiliates: Euro-PE; Caspian Private Equity; and Eagle Asia. Eric Deram, previously founder and managing partner of Euro-PE, has been appointed as CEO of Flexstone, which has combined assets of $6.7bn and a global team of at least 40 PE professionals based in Paris, New York, Singapore and Geneva. The launch of the new PE unit follows other recent expansions into alternatives and real assets, which include the firm’s acquisition of UK-based private debt specialist, MV Credit…
New indices
S&P Dow Jones Indices has launched the S&P GSCI Iron Ore and the S&P GSCI Industrials Metals and Iron Ore Equal Weight indices. These are the first of their kinds in the market, providing investors with investment performance benchmarks for either iron ore-only or as part of a selection of other industrial metals, including aluminium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc commodity markets. “The S&P GSCI Iron Ore, based on the Singapore Exchange iron ore contract, is the only investable and liquid index in the market that offers global investors exposure to iron ore futures, the second-most traded commodity after crude oil but up until now was previously limited to over-the-counter trading,” Alka Banerjee, managing director and global head of product management at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement…
