STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED THIS WEEK
People moves
JP Morgan Asset Management has appointed Sherene Ban as head of Singapore and Southeast Asia. She will replace Steven Billiet, who left the firm in late-February. Based in Singapore, Ban will be responsible for the firm’s distribution strategy for institutional and retail clients in the region. She will report to Dan Watkins, JP Morgan AM’s Asia-Pacific CEO. Before her new role, Ban was the firm’s London-based head of the global beta investment specialist team, where she grew the firm’s client relationships and drove product development across smart beta, factor investing, ETFs and multi-asset strategies. Before that, she worked for 11 years in various roles across Emea and Asia-Pacific, including co-heading the firm’s investment specialist team for emerging markets and Asia-Pacific equities…
Hong Kong-based Adamas Asset Management has appointed Brock Silvers as chief investment officer. Adamas has been with the firm since August last year, serving as managing director in charge of global marketing and investor relations. Before that, he was managing director at Shanghai-based multi-asset investment and fundraising advisory firm Kaiyuan Capital…
Business moves
T Rowe Price has launched five sustainable Sicav funds. They are the T Rowe Price Sustainable Global Focused Growth Equity Fund, the Sustainable Global Growth Equity Fund, the Sustainable US Large Cap Growth Equity Fund, the Sustainable Asia ex-Japan Equity Fund and the Sustainable Emerging Markets Equity Fund. The new funds impose values-based parameters to existing portfolios via an overlay of a proprietary exclusion list, while maintaining the same investment processes and objectives as the core strategies. The exclusion screen was developed in response to the most common ESG concerns expressed by the firm’s clients. At the moment, the new funds are only available to professional investors…
Morningstar has reached an agreement to fully acquire Sustainalytics, which provides ESG ratings and research. Together, the firms will put sustainable investing analytics at every level – from single security level to the portfolio level. Morningstar had previously acquired a 40% ownership stake in Sustainalytics in 2017. Morningstar expects that it will purchase the remaining 60% by the third quarter. Both firms started to team up in 2016 to supply investors with sustainability ratings for funds, as well as other sustainable portfolio analytics, including carbon metrics and controversial product involvement data…
Covid-19 fight
In a move to mitigate the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, DWS has committed to donating €1m ($1.07m) to charitable organisations in countries where DWS is active and which have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The chosen charities were nominated by DWS employees globally. The focus of the aid is to support organisations that provide basic services for socially disadvantaged people, especially the homeless and children. These organisations include Feeding Britain in the UK, Feeding Americas in the US and the Akshaya Patra foundation in India…
HSBC in Hong Kong will donate at least HK$60m ($7.74m) to assist people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in Hong Kong. The donation is intended to provide support to around 600,000 people, including senior citizens and other vulnerable communities across the SAR. Support ranges from delivering immediate food and hygiene supplies. Partner organisations include the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Food Angel, The Hong Kong Red Cross and St. James’ Settlement…
