Guangyu Zhang has recently joined JP Morgan Asset Management’s (JPMAM) Asia Pacific ETF specialists team to head up its China ETF business, according to an internal memo seen by FSA.
Based in Shanghai, Zhang (pictured) reports to Hong Kong-based Philippe El-Asmar, head of APAC ETF, digital & direct, JPMAM and locally to Shanghai-based Julia Hu, head of index and quantitative investment, JPMAM China.
Zhang will chair the China ETF working group, collaborating with sales, marketing, investment & research, operations, and other teams to jointly formulate the ETF business strategy, build out the ETF product line, and achieve the growth ambitions of the asset manager’s ETF business, according to the memo.
Before joining JPMAM, Zhang was the deputy director of the index investing department at Harvest Fund Management for almost eight years, where he played a key role in the construction of the company’s ETF ecosystem and new product launches.
Prior to that, he held various positions at financial institutions including Taikang Asset Management, Haitong Securities, and CITIC Securities.
The ETF market in China has boomed in recent years, with the annual inflow into the China ETF market surging almost five-fold during the past three years, reaching around RMB 604.3bn ($83.6bn) in 2023, according to Morningstar Direct. Total AUM at end of 2023 reached RMB1.82trn more than double the AUM in end 2020.
Morningstar attributes the popularity of ETFs to several factors. Notably, institutional investors have invested in broad-based index tracking ETFs, the China A-shares market has been “tepid” during the past three years, and value sectors have rebounded with outperformance by the coal, petroleum, petrochemical industries.
JPMAM’s global ETF suite features 115 product offerings with over $180bn in assets under management as of 30 June 2024.
