Peach promoted to lead Man Group’s Asia ops

Man Group, the $59 billion UK hedge fund manager, has promoted Tim Peach to managing director and head of its Asia-Pacific operations based in Singapore.

Peach has served for the past six years as head of sales for Southeast Asia. He officially took over last month from Tim Rainsford, who has been stationed in London as head of European sales.

Rainsford had been covering both Europe and Asia for Man Group and had been travelling regularly between London and Hong Kong, but has now relinquished the latter role.

Peach will now oversee development and execution of the group’s overall business strategy in the region, having first joined the firm in 1997 covering European clients from Man’s offices in London and Pfäffikon, Zurich.

A Man Group spokeswoman tells AsianInvestor that Peach will still cover sales for Southeast Asia and that no direct replacement will be made.

Man Group had $59 billion under management as at March 31 this year, of which around 27% is in Asia-Pacific. It has over 100 staff in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney covering trading, sales and distribution as of last month.

Last October former GIC portfolio manager David Mercurio joined Man Group in Hong Kong as its first Asia-based investment specialist focused on equities, particularly China. His hire was seen as a first step as the firm moved to expand its equity investment capabilities in the region.

At that time Pierre Lagrange, senior managing director of asset manager and Man subsidiary GLG and executive committee member as well as co-head of global equity strategies, took up the role of chairman of Man Asia. Man acquired GLG for $1.6 billion in 2010.

Man has undergone a management shakeup recently having seen its London-listed shares sink 70% over the last year to 73.1 pence.

It replaced its finance chief Kevin Hayes with Martin Sorrell, previously its head of strategy and corporate finance who joined less than a year ago after a decade in investment management, securities and investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

Reuters quoted a source close to the firm saying this change was part of a fight-back move aimed at revitalising Man’s strategy and luring back investors. Man’s $19.5 billion AHL fund lost 6.4% in 2011 and was down an estimated 1.4% to mid-June this year, the news agency added.