Weekly roundup of people news, June 11
Deutsche AWM appoints Asia client chief
Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management (Deutsche AWM) appointed Thomas Hu as Asia ex-Japan head of its global client group (GCG) on June 8. He replaces Ken Tam, who has had held the same role since joining Deutsche AWM in March 2014 from JP Morgan Asset Management.
When asked where he was moving to, Tam said he was “going to keep it to myself”. Both Hu and Tam are Hong Kong-based.
Like Tam, Hu will report to Ravi Raju, Deutsche AWM’s Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific head, as well as Dario Schiraldi, the Zurich-based GCG head. Hu will join Deutsche AWM’s APAC executive committee and its global GCG executive committee.
A spokeswoman for the firm said that there was a “transitional period for the time being” with both Hu and Tam currently in the same role, with an “effective date to be announced later”.
Hu has moved to AWM from Deutsche Bank’s corporate banking & securities division where he has been the Hong Kong debt head for the institutional client group. Before that he was head of Deutsche Bank’s institutional client group in Singapore.
Hu first joined Deutsche Bank in Singapore in 1994, the same year that Tam started at Jardine Fleming (now JP Morgan Asset Management) in Hong Kong.
Saratoga names new president director
Indonesian private equity firm Saratoga Investama Sedaya (SIS) has appointed Michael Soeryadjaya as president director. Soeryadjaya was appointed to the position at a shareholders meeting on June 10, which approved Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno’s resignation. Uno had been SIS’s president director since 2004.
"Saratoga is ready to welcome a new era,” Soeryadjaya said in a statement. He is the son of Edwin Soeryadjaya, who co-founded SIS’s holding company – Saratoga Capital – with Uno in 1997. Edwin and Michael Soeryadjaya are the son and grandson respectively of the late Astra International founder William Soeryadjaya. Michael Soeryadjaya was previously business development director, a position he had held at the PE firm since it listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 2013.
Uno remains one of SIS’s largest shareholders. He had served as a spokesman for Prabowo Subianto, who was a candidate in last year’s Indonesian presidential election. Uno has been appointed to the board of the political party Subianto heads, the Great Indonesia Movement Party. On June 3, Uno also resigned from his position as director of general affairs at coal miner Adaro Energy and is in the process of giving up his official positions at a further 16 companies.
Saratoga Capital’s first fund – Saratoga Asia II – closed fundraising at $152 million in 2007. Saratoga Asia III raised $600 million in 2012.
UBS hires China head
Swiss banking giant UBS has announced two senior appointments in China. It has hired Shanghai-based Eugene Qian as China country head and president of UBS Group China, and appointed Hong Kong-based He Di as chairman of the board of UBS Securities, the firm’s securities company in China. Qian joined in early June, while He assumed his position in May. He was previously vice-chairman of investment banking at UBS. Qian was hired from Citi, where he was president and a board director of Citi China., after joining the bank in 2007. Both report to Chi-Won Yoon, UBS Asia-Pacific president.
Qian is a UBS returnee, having worked at UBS from 1996 to 2003 at the bank’s investment banking division in Hong Kong. From 2003-2007 he worked at Deutsche Bank as Asia ex-Japan head of natural resources.
In his new role at UBS, Qian is responsible for all of the banking group’s businesses in China, including investment banking and wealth and asset management. In his former role at Citi, he was responsible for corporate and investment banking strategy as well as consumer banking businesses.
Meanwhile, He is responsible for the bank’s securities joint venture company in China. UBS recently increased its stake in UBS Securities to 25% from 20%. On Monday (June 8) UBS announced it had purchased a 4.99% stake from International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank. He joined UBS in 1997 and became head of China for the investment banking division. He was promoted to vice-chairman of investment banking in 2001 and stayed in this role until his present move to head the securities business.
Vontobel boosts Asia team
Vontobel Wealth Management has created two new roles to boost its business in Asia Pacific.
The wealth manager appointed Michael Haupt as chief operating officer on June 1 and Steven Ng as investment advisor on April 1. Both are based in Hong Kong and report to Asia-Pacific head Alex Fung.
Haupt was previously responsible for private market investments at the firm’s private banking business in Switzerland, and has experience in direct advisory and relationship management with ultra-high-net-worth clients. Haupt, who has been at Vontobel for more than five years, relocated to Hong Kong to support the firm’s business strategy for the region and institute best operational practices. Prior to Vontobel, Haupt worked at Partners Group between 2008-2010.
Ng is responsible for supporting local relationship managers to advise clients on strategies, asset allocation and asset acquisition. In addition, he is involved in product offering and implementation of advisory mandates.
Ng came to Vontobel from Robeco Hong Kong and HSBC, where he was responsible for funds and private equity distribution in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively. Ng has also held senior sales roles at Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank and Citibank.
Vontobel has had a formal presence in Asia Pacific since 2008 through its asset management division. In 2013, it established Singapore-based Vontobel Financial Products (Asia Pacific) and Vontobel Wealth Management (Hong Kong). As of the end of 2014, Vontobel had a regional AUM of $7.3 billion.
Symmetry adds portfolio managers in HK
Hedge fund Symmetry Investments has added two portfolio managers to its Hong Kong office. Deepak Baghla moved to Hong Kong last month after working at the $1.8 billion manager’s London office since June 2014. Before that he worked for Millennium Capital in London (2013-14), EDF Trading Markets (2011-13) and Barclays (2009-10) in various roles related to commodities trading. Prior to that, he worked for Morgan Stanley Investment Management (2008-09).
Aleksander Twarowski also joined Hong Kong-headquartered Symmetry in May. He worked as a London-based credit derivatives trader between August 2012 and March 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Baghla and Twarowski were added to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission’s register of licensed persons on June 8 and June 5 respectively. Other additions to the office in 2015 have also relocated from London, including James Chilton and Massimiliano Martirani.
Symmetry Investments was spun out of Millennium Capital last year. That firm reportedly provided $1.2 billion in initial capital. Symmetry Investments’ CIO and COO – Feng Guo and Michael Robinson – both worked for Millennium Capital in Hong Kong before founding the firm, which launched Hong Kong and London offices at the same time. Six of the then-seven-strong Hong Kong-based investment team joined from Millennium Capital last July. New hires since have seen the investment team double in size.
Alpine River recruits trader before fund launch
Hong Kong-based hedge fund Alpine River Capital Management has added a trader ahead of its first fund launch. Lam Chi Kwan started working for the firm this month. According to his LinkedIn profile, Lam was previously Asia ex-Japan head dealer at BlackRock (2009-2014), vice-president of trading at AllianceBernstein (2007-09), senior portfolio trader at CLSA (2005-07) and a trader at DnB Nor Asset Management (2000-05).
Alpine River, which was co-founded by Lin Bing and Kei Nagashima, is gearing up to launch a pan-Asia long short equity strategy.
Both Nagashima and Lin gained experience at New York-based Asia-focused hedge funds set up by Tiger Management alumnus. Nagashima joined Kylin Management at launch in 2006 and before that worked for Hong Kong-based Tiger Asia Management. Lin worked for New York-based Joho Capital between 2005-08 before returning to Hong Kong to work for MICH Investments (Asia) (2008-10) and Keywise Capital Management (HK) (2012-14).
Contineo hires operations chief
Julie Chen started as Hong Kong-based head of operations at structured product network Contineo on June 8. She has joined from Kurt Salmon where she worked on financial technology projects in Paris as a consultant between 2010 and June 2015, including a stint in Hong Kong between July and November 2014.
In the newly-created role Chen reports to Contineo’s CEO Mark Munoz. The messaging network for equity-linked structured products is scheduled to go live with current subscribers later this month.
Other people news reported by AsianInvestor over the past week:
Manulife plans HK funds platform for mutual recognition
HSBC loses sub-custody chief amid reorganisation