Jupiter’s Hong Kong buildout gathers pace

London-based fund house Jupiter Asset Management has chosen to spearhead a drive to promote its capabilities to Asian investors from Hong Kong.

Separately, the firm has appointed a compliance officer and a marketing manager, but declined to provide more details as they won’t be on board for a few months.

The moves are the latest developments in Jupiter’s bid to expand in the region as it seeks client base diversification by sourcing more assets from international markets.

In late January, Jupiter moved into a new office in Alexandra House in Central.

“Despite having a serviced office in Singapore and a master agent in Taiwan, Hong Kong is our first fully-fledged office outside of Europe,” says Hong Kong-based Peter Swarbreck, Jupiter’s head of Asia Pacific, who joined the firm in April last year.

After he took up the post, Swarbreck added several staff: one sales and one marketing executive, and an office manager. In February, the firm began advertising in Hong Kong.

Though the Jupiter has moved Asia up its list of priorities and has been building up its deployment in region, in November 2012 Jupiter said it had no intention of transferring investment capabilities from London. From early the same month, the firm has offered its full range of 15 Luxembourg-registered Sicav funds to retail investors in Hong Kong.

As a largely retail player, Jupiter plans to boost its presence by selling mutual funds in the wholesale market, rather than by winning mandates from institutional investors.

The firm’s assets under management stood at $54.2 billion as of March 31, up from $50.4 billion at the end of 2013, with net mutual fund inflows contributing $783 million of that growth.

“These flows came predominantly from our mutual fund franchise, which will continue to be the main driver of growth going forward following the recently announced disposal of our private client operations,” says CEO Maarten Slendebroek. He was promoted last month from head of distribution to replace Edward Bonham-Carter, who has taken on the role of executive vice chairman.