Axa Rosenberg Asia CIO exits to Invesco Great Wall
Invesco Great Wall Fund Management, the US asset manager’s Chinese joint venture, has made two management changes, including bringing in a senior quantitative investment professional.
Kevin Chen, the former long-standing Asia chief investment officer of Axa Rosenberg, joined Invesco Great Wall as deputy general manager last week, according to an Invesco announcement.
He will presumably be involved with investment at his new firm, but it is not clear how. Certainly, other Chinese fund houses, such as Ping An Asset Management, are moving to build out their quantitative investment capabilities.
Invesco declined to comment on the appointment or on whom Chen reported to.
Kang Le is chief executive of Invesco Great Wall, but last week handed over the chairmanship of the JV to Yi Ding, chair of both China Great Wall Securities (Invesco's JV partner) and of Huaneng Capital Services, according to an Invesco announcement.
Chen had left Axa Rosenberg, the quantitative equity arm of Axa Investment Managers, in August, an Axa spokesperson said. Anu Gupta has replaced him, having previously served as Asia head of portfolio management.
Chen had worked closely with Gupta, a 13-year veteran of the firm, “to transition his responsibilities prior to his departure”, said the spokesperson.
He had joined Rosenberg in 1999 and has held a number of roles including portfolio engineer and Americas CIO before becoming Asia CIO, where presumably he will have been involved in managing funds and institutional mandates.
Chen's appointment also comes amid a proliferation of changes in personnel among the Chinese arms of foreign asset managers, as they have sought to build teams at newly set up wholly foreign-owned entities.
Robeco hired Mitchelle Zhou from rival BlackRock to run its commercial activities in China as general manager in Shanghai, replacing Michael Lu, AsianInvestor reported in October.
Eastspring, meanwhile, had appointed Lu as head of its investment management wholly foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai in March.
Jolie Ho also contributed to this story.