BlackRock grabs Swan from JP Morgan AM as Asia equities CIO

BlackRock’s CIO for Asia fundamental equities, Nick Scott, is set to retire and will be replaced in Hong Kong by regional investment manager Andrew Swan from JP Morgan Asset Management.

An internal memo was sent to BlackRock staff this week to announce the move. Scott will retire in August, when Swan will also take up his new role, a spokeswoman from the $3.65 trillion fund manager tells AsianInvestor.

JP Morgan AM notes that Swan’s last day at the firm will be Friday, May 20, and that details on his replacement will be announced in due course.

Scott was formerly CIO within Prudential’s Asian operation and was hired by BlackRock in early 2007 to build its team of equity managers from scratch. BlackRock currently has eight investment professionals in its Asia fundamental equities team.

Swan, meanwhile, had been with JP Morgan Asset Management for 17 years. He was regional investment manager and country specialist with the Pacific regional group in Hong Kong.

He joined the firm in Sydney as an associate analyst in 1994 and held various positions before transferring to Singapore in 2002 to take up the role of head of Asia-Pacific media research. In 2004, he assumed the role of investment manager and transferred to Hong Kong in 2005.