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Morgan Stanley IM names lead PM for China strategies

Leon Sun was Nomura Asset Management’s head of investment for China and Hong Kong.
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Morgan Stanley Investment Management has made portfolio management changes to its China A Share Strategy, according to a statement from the firm.

Leon Sun has been named as a portfolio manager of the strategy, effective Wednesday, and will serve as an addition to managing director and portfolio manager Gary Cheung, who has been managing the fund since 2012 and is currently responsible for the day-to-day management of the fund’s portfolio.

Sun joined Morgan Stanley IM in Hong Kong as managing director last month. He is also the lead portfolio manager for the firm’s China strategies, as well as a co-portfolio manager for Asia-focused strategies, according to his biography on the firm’s website.

Sun’s hire follows the departure of May Yu in December, who worked alongside Cheung since 2012 to manage the China A Share strategy, according to an announcement made at the time.

Before Morgan Stanley IM, Sun was a senior portfolio manager and head of investment for China and Hong Kong at Nomura Asset Management for nine years. He was also an investment analyst at Martin Currie and a credit officer at Bank of China.

FSA sought more information from Morgan Stanley IM, but it was not able to provide additional details in time for publication.

The US-domiciled investment vehicle for the China A Share strategy incepted in 2006 and has around $557m in assets, according to the firm’s website. Meanwhile, a Sicav vehicle was rolled out in 2017, which had $52.33m in assets as of the end of February, according to its fund factsheet.

Morgan Stanley China A-Shares Fund: characteristics

Source: Fund factsheet, 28 February 2021

On a three-year cumulative basis, the fund has underperformed its peers and benchmark index, according to data from FE Fundinfo.

Source: FE Fundinfo

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