Asia distribution head Ng exits First State
The Asia head of distribution and managing director for Southeast Asia at Australia’s First State Investments has quit, AsianInvestor can reveal.
Alexis Ng tendered her resignation in mid-December and is due to leave next month, with the final date to be confirmed. AsianInvestor could not ascertain by press time whether she was moving on to a new firm.
Ng oversaw the Singapore office and Southeast Asia as well as distribution for both wholesale/retail and institutional business across the region.
In response to AsianInvestor queries, a spokeswoman for First State confirmed it had recently promoted Lauren Prendiville (left) and Vivian Tang (below) to heads of distribution for Southeast Asia and North Asia, respectively.
They will cover both wholesale/retail and institutional business. As such, First State is splitting Ng’s distribution responsibilities into the two regional segments.
Asked if Prendiville and Tang would be seeking to replace themselves in their respective teams given that they had been promoted, the spokeswoman said that was not the case. AsianInvestor had broken the news of their appointments at the firm in April 2014.
But First State declined to comment on whether it will appoint a replacement head of Southeast Asia.
Ng had reported to Kanesh Lakhani, London-based managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia distribution.
First State has worked on a functional reporting basis in Asia for more than a year, with Michael Stapleton having switched from Asia-Pacific managing director of First State Investments in September 2014 to become managing partner of First State Stewart, a team that manages a range of equity funds.
Ng had worked at First State since April 2010, before which she had served for five years as an executive director at Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
First State Investments, known as Colonial First State Global Asset Management in Australia, is the investment management business of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It has offices across Europe, the US, Middle East and Asia Pacific and global AUM of $137.6 billion.