Weekly roundup of job-hoppers, Apr 19
Eastspring promotes Ruitenberg for Europe expansion
Prudential-owned manager Eastspring Investments has promoted its Vietnam chief executive Henk Ruitenberg to head expansion plans for the UK and Europe.
The change sees Ruitenberg relocate to Luxembourg, where he becomes an executive board member. From there he will seek to promote Eastspring’s Asia equities and fixed income capabilities to retail and institutional investors across Europe.
The fund house has received regulatory approval for the creation of Eastspring Investments (Luxembourg), enabling it to sell its products in Europe. Plans are also underway to open a UK subsidiary in the next few months.
Succeeding Ruitenberg in his Vietnam role is Nguyen Tuan Thien An, who started in February and will be responsible for all fund management operations in the country.
He reports to Hong Kong-based Eastspring CEO Graham Mason, with the firm expected to extend its relationships with global distribution partners in Asia that have a reach in Europe’s institutional and retail markets.
“There has been significant interest from pension funds in the Nordics and Benelux regions which are seeking diversification outside their domestic regions,” Mason notes. “We will be focusing on European investors seeking exposure to Asia equities and fixed income.”
Eastspring has about $19 billion in assets under management on the group’s Luxembourg Sicav funds platform. The funds are distributed in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates, and are indirectly available via funds of funds and feeder funds in Japan and Korea.
This expansion will allow investors in European markets to access these strategies.
Eastspring made its first foray outside Asia last year by setting up in the US, a $35 trillion market for investment management, of which pensions account for 16%.
Cititrust unveils Aldcroft as Asia-Pacific chief
Transactional services group Cititrust has promoted Stewart Aldcroft to chief executive for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong.
With an official start date of February following regulatory approvals, he has regional business development responsibility and replaces Cyrus So. He reports to David Russell, regional head for securities and fund services for Asia Pacific.
Aldcroft joined Citi in August 2011 as a senior adviser to the group’s clients – a role he retains in addition to his CEO role. Essentially, this involves advising on market entry strategies, development and expansion of an existing fund business.
So remains with the business and is currently director of CitiTrust Hong Kong and head of operations for Citi’s Transaction Services in Hong Kong.
Prudential names Shaw as marketing head
UK insurer Prudential has named Anthony Shaw as its chief officer for marketing and customer services, effective from April 1.
Shaw reports to Derek Yung, CEO of Prudential Hong Kong, and has responsibilities covering product development, distribution channels, digital marketing, market intelligence and customer insights.
Shaw was formally regional director for channel marketing, which makes use of analytics and customer data for its agency, bancassurance and direct marketing channels.
RBC Wealth Management bolsters in Singapore
Royal Bank of Canada’s wealth management arm has been bolstering its credit capabilities in Asia over the past four months based out of Singapore.
Joseph Howe was named co-head of credit with Eugene Chan, reporting to Andrew Turczyniak, head of emerging markets and Asia. Howe was most recently director for credit risk management for Deutsche Bank, but left the role in February last year.
Mona Leong was hired as senior credit risk manager, reporting to Benjamin Tsai, head of credit risk for wealth management Asia. She joins from Bank Sarasin and has since been replaced, confirms a Sarasin spokeswoman.
Enoch Tan was also hired as managing director, reporting to Turczyniak. Tan heads up a regional effort to provide corporate finance advisory services and strategic solutions to the corporate concerns of high-net-worth clients in Asia.
Tan joins from Rothschild, where he was head of debt advisory for Asia based in Singapore. He has since been replaced by Ajay Gundecha.
In January, the bank announced it had hired Febby Avianto as market manager for Singapore; Esther Quek as head of FX execution and advisory; and Duncan She as head of structured products advisory.
In a previous interview with AsianInvestor, Simon Ng, head of wealth management and trust for RBC Wealth Management based in Hong Kong, said the firm plans to more than double its regional AUM to $25 billion by 2015, from $11 billion.
Other people moves reported by AsianInvestor in the past week:
BlackRock hires global capital markets head in Asia