From the press release desk this week…
People moves
Hermes Investment Management has appointed Kevin Roche as a director for private debt and collateralised loan obligations (CLOs). Based in London, Roche will report to Laura Vaughan, head of direct lending. Before Hermes IM, Roche was a director at Allied Irish Banks, where he was responsible for delivering leveraged finance loans to mid-market private equity-backed companies…
Business moves
JP Morgan Asset Management has partnered with China Securities Index (CSI) to launch a dedicated China A-shares “strategic beta” index, according to a statement from the asset manager. The index, the CSI JPMorgan Yangtze River Delta (YRD) Area Strategic Beta Index, will be published next month. There are around 1,200 publicly listed A-share YRD companies, but the index will only include 150 stocks, based on a multi-factor screening process and exhibit attractive valuation and quality attributes. FSA asked for more information from JPMAM about whether the firm is planning to launch a smart beta product based on the index, but said it has no information to add at this point…
Singapore-based Fullerton Fund Management has launched three multi-asset funds – the SGD Heritage Income, Heritage Balanced and the Heritage Growth funds. The funds, which were lodged for application in March with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, are managed by the firm’s multi-asset team, led by Vincent Chan. For the fund’s distribution, the firm exclusively partnered with Standard Chartered Bank…
ESG
UBS Wealth Management has raised at least $93m globally for London-based Generation Investment Management’s Sustainable Solutions Fund III, according to a statement from the bank. In total, the fund has commitments of around $1bn and will invest in companies which make a positive net contribution to society and support growth ventures with a clear mandate to accelerate the transition to a sustainable economy. FSA sought more information from UBS how much it has raised from Asia-Pacific-based investors, but the bank declined to comment…
S&P Dow Jones Indices (DJI) has launched new ESG indices, which include ESG versions of the S&P DJI’s country and regional large and mid-cap benchmarks covering the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific. In total, there will be 22 regional and country ESG indices that are part of the launch. The ESG scores are overseen by S&P DJI’s governance group and are calculated by Sam, which is a unit of Robeco Sam that specialises in producing ESG data…
Hedge funds
Investors continue to pull out from hedge funds globally, redeeming around $18.15bn since the start of the year, according to an Evestment report. However, while hedge funds that focus on global and developed markets saw huge outflows, those that invest in Asia and emerging markets had net inflows of nearly $9bn…
