FROM THE PRESS RELEASE DESK THIS WEEK…
People moves
Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) has appointed Nick Schoenmaker as an investment specialist for equities and multi-asset strategies in Australia. Based in Sydney and reporting to Donald Amstad, chief operating officer and head of investment specialists for Asia-Pacific, Schoenmaker will work closely with the firm’s multi-asset team and the global, Asian and emerging market equity fund managers to promote these capabilities to Australian investors. Before ASI, Schoenmaker was at AMP Capital, where, since January last year, he had been a national manager of a team of portfolio specialists across multi-asset and goals-based funds since January…
Gam Investments has appointed Alison Wallis as director for Australia institutional business. Based in Sydney, Wallis will be responsible for business development and servicing the institutional market in Australia. She will report to Alex Zaika, managing director for Australia. Wallis was previously at alternatives asset manager Brookvine, where she also focused on institutions…
ESG
UOB Venture Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Overseas Bank (UOB), will be launching an impact fund in the second half of the year. The new private equity fund will be the firm’s second Asia-focused impact fund. The Asia Impact Investment Fund (AIIF) II will follow the strategy of the first product, which focuses on the region’s education, healthcare and agriculture sectors. It will also invest in areas of financial inclusion, affordable housing, clean energy, water and sanitation. The manager will take minority stakes in the investee companies, making equity investments of around $1m-$15m…
Facebook, which had a weight of 2.5% in the S&P 500 ESG Index, was removed from the index at the end of April, Reid Steadman, managing director and global head of ESG at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a blogpost. Although Facebook had a strong environmental score of 82 out of 100, with 100 being the highest, the score only carried a 21% weight in determining its aggregate ESG score, as environmental issues tend to be less material for technology companies. Its social and governance scores were 22 and 6, which carried weights of 27% and 52%, respectively. “The specific issues resulting in theses scores had to do with various privacy concerns, including a lack of transparency as to why Facebook collects and shares certain user information,” Steadman said…
Business moves
Credit ratings firm Moody’s Investors Service finds that the partnership between UBS and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank to launch a joint venture wealth management firm in Japan is “credit positive” for both firms, according to a report by the firm. Through the partnership, UBS will broaden its reach to wealthy individuals in Japan, while Sumitomo Mitsui will further expand its core fee businesses by providing globally competitive UBS wealth management products and services to wealthy clients in Japan, Moody’s said…
Singapore and UK
Singapore and the UK have concluded three agreements that will deepen connectivity between the two jurisdictions, according to a statement from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. These include the intention to cooperate in facilitating data flows, enhancing cross-border know-your-customer processes, developing skills and competencies in the financial sector and promoting green finance. “These initiatives we are working on – data flows and governance, cybersecurity, skills development and green finance – will enable continued dynamism and stability in Singapore’s and London’s financial centres,” said Tharman Shanmugaratnam, senior minister of Singapore…
