Senior advisor Stewart Aldcroft to leave Citi
Hong Kong-based senior advisor to Citi’s fund management division for Asia and investment industry veteran Stewart Aldcroft will be leaving the group, with effect from August 20.
Aldcroft has been with the firm for 10 years and also holds the positions of managing director for Citi’s markets and securities services, and chairman for Cititrust.
He will be taking a few months off to return to the UK before returning to Hong Kong in January. However, his plans are “open” for now, although there is a possibility he might take up a consulting role with Citi.
“The last decade has seen momentous changes in both Hong Kong and Citi, and especially in the development of the funds and asset management business in Greater China,” he wrote in a farewell note to colleagues and industry contacts.
“From a very small number in 2011, the fund management business in China has grown to become one of the largest in the world and growing faster than anywhere else. It has been a privilege to have witnessed that,” his note wrote.
Hong Kong assets under management reached HK$34.9 trillion ($4.5 trillion) in 2020, a 21% increase from the year before, and nearly four times the amount in 2011. Hong Kong also now has 48,000 people working in the industry, up from 34,000 in 2016.
He also noted that in his 36 years in the funds and asset management business in Asia and Hong Kong, he has observed the industry evolve from a western-dominated business in the 1980s to a part of local financial assets today.
“Institutional investors are perhaps more willing to embrace the many alternatives now offered, whether it is ETFs (exchange-trade funds) or ESG (environmental, social and governance), hedge and alternative funds,” he wrote.
Aldcroft has worked in a variety of roles, including at Franklin Templeton Investment Services, Investec Asset Management (now rebranded as NinetyOne), Standard Chartered, single-family office Horizon21 and asset management firm Enhanced Investments Products (EIP).
A Citi spokesperson told AsianInvestor a replacement has not been found, but confirmed that Aldcroft could possibly continue in a consulting role in the future.