JP Morgan AM to hire Ebrahim in Hong Kong
US fund house JP Morgan Asset Management is set to hire Ayaz Ebrahim from Amundi as it restructures its regional equity investment team, AsianInvestor understands.
Ebrahim has spent the past four years as Asia ex-Japan equities CIO at Amundi Asset Management in Hong Kong, reporting to Zhong Xiaofeng, CEO for North Asia. We reported his move from HSBC Asset Management back in 2011.
But AsianInvestor has been told Ebrahim is working out his notice and has agreed to join JP Morgan Asset Management in a few months’ time, also based in Hong Kong.
It is expected he will take on a senior equity investment role at the US firm, reporting to Richard Titherington, who is relocating from London to take on an expanded role.
Titherington has been leading JP Morgan AM’s global emerging markets equity team out of London. He is due to move to Hong Kong late this summer to take over from Ted Pulling, who is relocating to the US with his family.
Pulling had run the firm’s Pacific Regional Group in Hong Kong. But in April JP Morgan moved to combine this unit with its global emerging markets team. Titherington will lead the combined unit as CIO when he arrives in Hong Kong.
JP Morgan AM has confirmed Pulling will remain in Hong Kong until the end of this year to help with the management transition.
The move means Titherington will return to his former stomping ground, having spent seven years as Asia ex-Japan portfolio manager for JF Asset Management. Former Hong Kong investment bank Jardine Fleming was sold to JP Morgan Chase in 2000.
AsianInvestor understands that managing director Victor Lee and executive director Marc Franklin are set to leave JP Morgan AM’s equity team in Hong Kong to pursue other opportunities. AsianInvestor could not confirm their next move by press time.
A spokesman for JP Morgan AM confirmed that their portfolio responsibilities had been reassigned to other fund managers on the team.
Overall JP Morgan AM’s global emerging markets team manages $40 billion and comprises 42 investment professionals. Its Pacific Regional Group manages $50 billion and is home to 60 investment professionals. It means Titherington will be responsible for $90 billion and a 100-strong investment team.
A spokesman for JP Morgan Asset Management declined to confirm or deny Ebrahim’s hire, while Amundi Asset Management did not respond to AsianInvestor requests for comment by press time.