PineBridge builds out Greater China equity team
PineBridge Investments has made four recent hires – three additions and one replacement – to its investment team in Asia, with a particular focus on Greater China, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Mabel Wong joined from HSBC Global Asset Management as portfolio manager of Greater China equities on April 27. Previously this area was covered by the global equity team. Based in Hong Kong, Wong reports to Wilfred Son Keng Po, head of Asia ex-Japan equities.
Wong was an investment director and senior investment analyst at HSBC Global AM in Hong Kong, managing institutional and retail funds. She left the firm on December 31. HSBC declined to comment on whether she had been replaced.
Prior to this, she worked in equity research at Deutsche Bank and CLSA, having begun her investing career at SG Securities as a small-cap analyst.
Meanwhile, Cyrus Chong joined PineBridge on June 1 as an investment analyst covering consumer staples, financials, energy, industrials and utilities for the Hong Kong and China markets. He is based in Hong Kong and reports to Son. Chong was previously a senior equities research analyst at RHB Securities, which did not respond to a request for comment.
As previously reported, Benjamin Tsui joined PineBridge as an investment analyst in June, supporting the multi-asset team. Prior to joining PineBridge in his newly created role, Tsui was with French fund house Amundi in the institutional sales team covering North Asia.
In addition, Jason Yuen started at PineBridge on June 5 as product development manager, replacing Jeffrey Wong, who left earlier this year. Yuen reports to Catherine Cheung, Asia head of product development. Prior to joining PineBridge, Yuen was a product manager at UBS Asset Management, which declined to comment on the departure.
The appointments of Chong and Wong appear to reflect a growing focus on China for PineBridge. The firm already has a mainland joint venture, Huatai-PineBridge.
Asked whether PineBridge planned to apply for a licence to set up a wholly foreign-owned entity in China, or was using Stock Connect or the China interbank bond market scheme to access mainland markets, the spokeswoman declined to comment.
Other international asset managers – such as Singapore's Fullerton, JP Morgan AM and UBS AM –have been strengthening their China bond and equity teams as the mainland market steadily opens up to foreign investors.