AsianInvestor’s weekly roundup of job-hoppers: March 2
Barings seeks regional head of institutional sales after Shum exit
Baring Asset Management is searching for a new head of institutional sales for the region after Hong Kong-based Wayne Shum left the company early last month, AsianInvestor can reveal.
A spokeswoman for Barings in Hong Kong notes that it is engaged in the process of looking for an external replacement and is eager to recruit someone “as soon as possible”.
Gerry Ng, managing director for Baring Asset Management Hong Kong, is fulfilling Shum’s duties in the interim. The firm’s regional institutional sales team also comprises an assistant based in Hong Kong.
However, its institutional sales in Taiwan falls under the remit of managing director Barry Lin, who is based in Taipei, and Ike Bae for Korea, based in Seoul.
Shum only joined Barings in August 2010 from HSBC Global Asset Management, where he had worked as head of sovereigns and supranationals for Asia-Pacific. He succeeded Elvin Yu, who departed Barings to join RCM in August 2009.
Hong Kong is Barings’ regional headquarters. It also has offices in Tokyo, Taipei, Korea and Dubai, while its head office is in London. As at the end of January Barings had $47.6 billion in assets under management and about 100 staff in Asia, including Japan.
Singapore CEO post at HSBC represents rapid rise for Ankarcrona
HSBC Global Asset Management promoted Sten Ankarcrona to chief executive officer of its Singapore office this week, replacing Patrick Tse, who relocates to Hong Kong.
Ankarcrona took up his post on March 1 to drive strategy for the wholesale and institutional business in Southeast Asia. He will oversee more than 30 staff at HSBC in Singapore.
He reports functionally to Asia-Pacific CEO Joanna Munro and locally to Paul Arrowsmith, head of retail banking and wealth management for HSBC Singapore.
It represents a sharp ascent in Asia for Ankarcrona, who only transferred from Stockholm to Singapore in September 2010 to take up the role of head of sovereigns and supranationals for Asia-Pacific, filling a gap after Shum (see above) quit to join Baring Asset Management.
“His strong understanding about the sovereign and supranational sector provides him with strong credentials to lead the Singapore office,” suggests Munro.
In terms of who might replace Ankarcrona in his former role, an HSBC spokesman in Singapore says only: “We will inform the market when there is a new development.”
Meanwhile, Tse, who had served as Singapore CEO for two years, returns to Hong Kong to take up a regional business management role within HSBC Global Asset Management, reporting to Munro.
Ankarcrona joined HSBC in 2004 as managing director in the Stockholm branch for HSBC Global Asset Management (France), where he was responsible for establishing the office and developing institutional, corporate, pension and third-party distribution business in the Nordic region.
Prior to joining HSBC he was at Nordea Investment Management, where he was senior portfolio manager for US equities, and subsequently head of product development covering the pan-Nordic markets. He has also worked in international equity sales at Enskilda Securities.
HSBC Global Asset Management adding credit analysts
The Asia-Pacific chief executive of HSBC Global Asset Management, Joanna Munro, revealed that the firm is intent on strengthening its investment capabilities in Asian fixed income.
At a media lunch in Hong Kong this week, she disclosed it had hired Seok Poh Yeoh as an additional credit analyst in Hong Kong and is looking to recruit another.
Seok started officially on March 1, bringing the firm’s credit research team to six led by Elizabeth Allen, whom it hired as head of credit research for Asia-Pacific last October.
It comes after HSBC Global Asset Management relocated Geoffrey Lunt from London to Hong Kong as senior fixed income product specialist last year, and appointed Michael Zheng as head of fixed income at its Shanghai joint-venture, HSBC Jintrust.
Munro noted at the lunch that the offshore RMB market began with an imbalance between insubstantial supply and red-hot demand. “There was very limited choice so yields came down to a level that was not attractive to clients,” she reflected.
However, she pointed to a dramatic improvement in the market since the third quarter last year, with the emergence of far greater choice in terms of issuers, quality, yield and available maturities.
Munro confirmed that HSBC was eager to strengthen its fixed income capabilities. “We expect to see more new [RMB bond] issuance, so that makes credit selection even more important,” she noted. “We continue to strengthen our resources in this area.”
She added that HSBC bullishly expects to see a further Rmb260 billion in offshore RMB bond issuance in 2012, taking the overall CNH market up to $400 billion to Rmb450 billion. “It is happening more quickly than expected and Beijing is being very supportive,” she noted.
Yiting Tang sets up private bond fund in China
The former assistant vice-president of Essence Securities’ bond investment business, Yiting Tang, has set up his own private bond fund. It will collaborate with trust companies to issue private fund bond trust products.
Tang was in charge of proprietary fixed income trading at Essence Securities. Before that, he held a similar position at Agricultural Bank of China.
“Moving into private funds is in line with my personal investment style,” Tang says. “This will enable me to focus more on investment and spend less time on administration management.”
At present equity funds dominate the private fund sector, where the presence of fixed income managers is still limited.
But as China tries to develop a high-yield bond market and launch more derivatives including government bond futures and interest rate swaps, there will be room for more bond fund managers to grow.
Tang hopes to improve communication with the regulator in terms of information disclosure and investment operations and get support from custodian and intermediaries for his new venture.
Trio bolster global capabilities at Franklin Templeton
Franklin Templeton Real Asset Advisors added three staff to strengthen its investment and distribution capabilities globally.
Christopher Casey joined as an institutional portfolio manager based in New York. He is responsible for communicating the product strategies and capabilities of the firm’s private real estate, infrastructure and real estate securities groups to global distribution channels.
Previously he worked as chief operating officer of Post Oak Energy Capital, a Houston-based oil and gas private equity firm. Before that he was managing director at AIG Global Real Estate.
Meanwhile, Schaper Witsard joined as a vice-president based in London, with a focus on identifying real estate fund and investment opportunities in European markets.
Witsard was executive director of Forum Partners, responsible for originating, structuring and managing private and listed investments in Europe. Before that he was vice-president with Credit Suisse Real Estate Capital Partners, where he oversaw execution of pan-European acquisitions.
And Emily Foshag joined as an investment manager based in New York, responsible for sourcing and underwriting global private infrastructure and real resources investments.
Foshag had served as fixed income investment analyst and business strategy analyst with Fiduciary Trust Company International, Franklin Templeton’s wealth management subsidiary. Before that she assisted with private equity portfolio analytics and joint-venture accounting at Fortress Investment Group.
Other moves reported by AsianInvestor in the past week:
We're a good match, says PineBridge's new global CEO
Citi names new Asia head of fund services in reshuffle
Blackstone taps Huang from Morgan Stanley PE for China