Manulife AM's Chum ditches funds for wine

The intriguingly named Terrace Chum is now making his living off wine rather than funds, after leaving the Greater China equities team at Manulife Asset Management in late January.

According to his LinkedIn page, he is now founder and CEO of a wine storage company called Savoie Fine Wine Cellar.

Chum had joined Manulife in 2008 as executive director for Hong Kong/China equities at the same time as Matthew Lee, head of Greater China equities. Lee left Manulife in April to join Koi Investment Partners, after which time Chum reported directly to Ronald Chan, head of Asia equities, who joined in early 2011.

Chum was not a lead manager of any client portfolio, and his departure has no direct impact on the management of portfolios, says a Manulife spokeswoman.

The Greater China equities team now comprises two senior portfolio managers, Kai Kong Chay and Oscar Leung, with Li Wenlin as a director, along with three analysts.

Leung joined Manulife AM Management in December from ING Investment Management as a Hong Kong market specialist, in a newly created role. He has more than 24 years’ investment management experience, including 10 as senior manager for Hong Kong/China equities with ING IM.

Manulife AM was granted a $200 million QFII quota in 2010, which it used to launch a $140 million China A-share fund. Chum and Lee managed the fund out of Hong Kong, sub-advised by Beijing-based joint venture Manulife Teda, as reported by AsianInvestor.
 
Before joining Manulife, Chum was a fund manager at long/short equities hedge fund Pacific Group in Hong Kong. Prior to that he was with Schroder Investment Management for 11 years, most recently as a director and fund manager.