From the press release desk this week…
Wine time
Research conducted by wine investment company Cult Wines shows that a majority of advisers and wealth managers (66%) believe that investors should consider diversifying their portfolio by investing in fine wines. Research findings show that during periods of economic deterioration, fine wine compares favourably to the performance of global and Asian equities. Over a 10-year period ending in 2017, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000, an index tracking the prices of 1,000 wines, experienced less than a third of the volatility of the MSCI World Index…
People moves
Standard Chartered Private Bank has appointed Stephen Atkinson as regional head for Europe, Middle East and Africa and global head for private banking referrals, effective 3 September. He will be replacing Ian Gibson, who will be retiring from the bank in September. Atkinson has 27 years of experience gained within Standard Chartered across various leadership positions in the bank’s corporate and institutional banking segment. Before his new role, he was chief of staff to the bank’s CEO, Bill Winters. Atkinson will continue to be based in London and will report to Didier Von Daeniken, global head for private banking and wealth management, as well as to Tracy Clarke, regional CEO for Europe and Americas…
Aviva Investors has appointed Divyesh Bhana as Sydney-based client solutions director for Australia. In this newly-created role, Bhana will focus on expanding the business’ institutional investor base in Australia and will report to Brett Jackson, managing director for Australia. Before Aviva, Bhana was a senior consultant at Russell Investments, where he was responsible for the growth of the firm’s institutional business in Australia…
Franklin Templeton Investments has appointed Andrew Ness as Edinburgh-based portfolio manager for the firm’s emerging markets equity team. He will be managing the London Stock Exchange-listed Templeton Emerging Markets Investment Trust, working alongside lead portfolio manager Chetan Sehgal. Before Franklin Templeton, Ness was at Martin Currie, where he was a senior member of its global emerging markets equity team…
The Investment Company Institute, an association representing regulated funds globally, has appointed two executives to lead ICI Global. Alexa Lam,who was previously deputy CEO at Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (until 2015), has been named as Hong Kong-based CEO for Asia-Pacific, effective 1 October. She will succeed Qiumei Yang, who is resigning to join her family’s business. Currently, Lam is a professor of legal practice at the University of Hong Kong. The firm also promoted Patrice Bergé-Vincent to London-based managing director, effective 1 January. He will be responsible for directing the international programme in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. He will replace Dan Waters, who will be retiring at the end of the year…
Real estate
M&G Real Estate has acquired Centropolis Towers, a prime twin tower office building in Seoul for $1.04bn. The firm led the transaction, which will complete in September. “We are seeing a rise in demand for high quality assets in South Korea as domestic and international investors allocate more capital for real estate,” Ng Chiang Ling, CEO and chief investment officer at M&G Real Estate, said in a statement…
Global real estate investment management firm Heitman has announced the final close of the Heitman Asia-Pacific Property Investors, which is a closed-end fund. It had aggregated commitments of $338m, surpassing the fund’s target of $250m. The fund has made initial commitments to investments in Tokyo, Melbourne and Hong Kong, and will focus the remainder of the capital on the most developed and liquid markets in the region, including Osaka, Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore and Seoul…
Hedge funds
Investors withdrew $7.88bn from hedge funds globally in June, bringing the Q2 net flows for the industry to -$5.43bn, according to an Evestment report. This was the industry’s first quarterly net redemption since 2016. Global hedge fund assets are $3.3trn…
Hedge fund flows
