BMO Global hires ex-Value Partners China sales head
BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) has hired Value Partners' former head of China business development, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Albert Teoh (pictured left) joined the Canadian fund house as Hong Kong-based director of Greater China sales, this month, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A spokeswoman at BMO GAM confirmed the new hire, but declined to provide further information about the appointment and the fund house's plans for the China business by press time.
BMO GAM previously lost sales team director Xie Yi, when she joined Hai Tong Asset Management in July. AsianInvestor could not confirm if Teoh is Xie's replacement.
Teoh was previously managing director of China business at Value Partners, which has undergone a leadership reshuffle that began earlier this year under new chief executive Au King Lun, who joined in December. Teoh's Linkedin profile said he left Value Partners in September.
After Teoh’s departure, his duties were taken over by Shanghai-based investment director Yu Xiaobo, who also took on responsibility for the onshore mainland business. This includes the firm’s two wholly foreign-owned entities (WFOEs), and its qualified domestic limited partnership (QDLP) and mutual recognition of funds businesses.
Of late, foreign asset management companies have been flexing their muscles in an effort to expand into the China market.
BMO GAM's Canadian peer Manulife became the first financial institution to win an investment management wholly foreign-owned enterprise licence (IM WFOE) earlier this year, allowing it to set up a wholly foreign-owned investment company in Shanghai.
The fund management arm of the Canadian insurance group plans to focus on selling private-market products to mainland asset owners.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Europe's second biggest fund house, recently appointed a head for its onshore China business. The newly combined group has hired Amy Wang, formerly head of institutional business for Greater China at Amundi Pioneer Asset Management, another recently merged entity.