From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Barings has created new leadership roles in the region. It has appointed Duncan Robertson, the firm’s global head of distribution and marketing, in the newly created role of head of Asia-Pacific, while Shelley Liu joined the firm as country head of China. In Robertson’s new role, he will be responsible for leading the firm’s overall business operations and growth strategy in Asia-Pacific while continuing to oversee the firm’s global distribution and marketing strategy. He will relocate to Sydney from Charlotte, North Carolina, and will report to Tom Finke, the firm’s chairman and CEO. Liu, who will report to Robertson, will be responsible for leading the firm’s efforts in China. Her appointment follows after the firm received regulatory approval to set up an IM WFOE in China. Before Barings, Liu was the chief representative of the Beijing office and head of government relations for China at Vanguard Investments in Hong Kong…
DWS (the new brand name for Deutsche Asset Management), has appointed Clarence Ng as Shanghai-based Asia-Pacific chief financial officer (CFO) for the firm’s alternative business and CFO for China. In these newly created roles, Ng will be responsible for managing the implementation of all financial and governance aspects of the alternatives business across the region, in addition to managing all operational aspects of DWS in Shanghai. He will report to Leon Williams, Asia-Pacific chief operating officer for alternatives. Previously, Ng was Deutsche Bank China’s global markets finance director…
ESG
BNP Paribas Asset Management will be offering its ESG-focused funds, the Parvest Aqua Fund and the Parvest Global Environment Fund, to retail investors in Hong Kong, according to records from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission. The Aqua Fund and the Global Environmental Fund have been available to retail investors in Singapore since 2015 and 2018 respectively, according to FE data…
JP Morgan Asset Management in Australia has excluded tobacco stocks from its flagship multi-strategy in the Australia market, the JPMorgan Global Macro Opportunities Fund. The move was made in response to client demand and follows the firm’s exclusion of investing in issuers classified as controversial weapons producers. The fund, which has assets of A$146m ($106.3m) is part of a global macro thematic strategy with $9.8bn in assets globally…
Business moves
Japan-based instant messaging app Line has launched a $10m crypto investment fund. The fund, Unblock Ventures, will be managed by Line subsidiary Unblock. The fund will focus on token investments and is expected to expand in the future, according to the growth of the blockchain market…
Manulife in the Philippines has launched the Emperor Fund, which will invest in Filipino-Chinese-owned companies in the Philippines, according the firm’s website. The firm claims that if the fund was launched three years ago, it would have outperformed the Philippine Stock Exchange Index by 21.57%. The fund is only available through Manulife Philippines’ variable life products…
Nikko Asset Management has selected Factset’s linear multi asset class risk model to help manage risk across the firm’s global fixed income portfolios. With the deal, Nikko AM plans to optimise the speed and quality of data integration across asset types, input sources and geographic locations. Nikko AM will also leverage Factset’s fixed income analytics to obtain a single global multi-asset covariance matrix and analytics coverage across developed, emerging and frontier markets…
