Tag: merrill

Gabriel Butler moves from ITG to strengthen the US bank's electronic platform in Hong Kong. Stephen Corry replaces Tony Stanton as Asia chief investment officer of Merrill's wealth arm, while Wilson So joins as head of North Asia global wealth management advisory. The CIO of the Korea Investment Corporation explains why the Merrill Lynch deal will work out, as well as his views on hedge fund fees and other topics. Joanne Bryant-Rubio joins Merrill Lynch from CLSA in London. Temasek says Ho Ching will stand down as CEO later this year and be replaced by former BHP Billiton boss Charles Goodyear. Merrill Lynch prefers equity markets in China and Korea, and says the best-of-breed investment theme will lead to outperformance. Merrill Lynch’s latest fund manager survey shows the outlook for the world economy is no longer as gloomy as it has been in previous months. Merrill Lynch expects central banks to ease up on accumulating reserves and transfer more funds to sovereign wealth funds. According to the new BRICycle, India offers the greatest long-run promise while China has the best prospects for a consumption boom. Merrill Lynch puts the finishing touches to its Asian Real Estate Opportunity Fund having raised $2.65 billion. Merrill Lynch predicts reluctance among investors to re-enter emerging markets, which have suffered $30 billion in outflows in recent weeks. Going against its quantitative model, Merrill Lynch upgrades Australia, China and Hong Kong while downgrading Singapore, India and Korea. Merrill Lynch expects passive funds to buy $16 billion worth of Korean equities as a result of the FTSE upgrade. Merrill Lynch shuffles people internally and decentralises its prime-broking capital introductions business as Martin Visairas follows Yvonne Wong through the exit. Australia, Korea and India are the largest underweights in the firm’s latest model portfolio. Merrill Lynch expects the combined assets of the world’s high-net-worth individuals to reach $59.1 trillion by 2012, led by those in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Fund managers are more underweight equities than they have been in 10 years, with only 1% of respondents to a Merrill Lynch poll saying the asset class is undervalued. Only recently dispatched to Singapore by Lehman, Dan McNicholas is whisked back to Hong Kong to work for Merrill Lynch. Martin Visairas will pick up capital introductions responsibilities at Merrill Lynch prime broking in Hong Kong while new arrangements are worked out. Jeff Penney, co-head of global financing business in Merrill Lynch’s prime broking unit, talks about operations and risks.