Stewart Aldcroft is taking a break from his role as managing director at Investec Asset Management after three years of helping establish the firm in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Although he will still be checking in on the office for the rest of 2003, the day-to-day reins have passed to Philip Yeung, finance director.

Aldcroft has been a fixture of the Hong Kong funds industry for years. Prior to getting Investec's retail business off the ground, he did a stint on the distribution side at Standard Chartered Bank. But most of his career has been on the funds marketing and business development side, including five years at Templeton, five years at HSBC and 14 years at Schroders both in Hong Kong and London.

He is taking a sabbatical to catch up with his wife and young son - and to hit the links, with a family excursion to Thailand on the cards. He decided to take a breather now after having put the firm on course in Hong Kong and Taiwan, "from a position of strength", he says.

Aldcroft has no plans for the immediate future, although he expressed a desire to stay involved in the Asian funds business, perhaps back with Investec, or as a consultant, or with another firm.

Yeung says Investec isn't hiring. "Stewart's only on sabbatical and may return to the firm," he says.

Trained as an accountant, Yeung has moved through the ranks and for the past several years has worked on building the Taiwan business. Investec now has a rep office there and has established distribution arrangements with the securities investment consulting enterprise (Sice) arms of groups such as AIG and Fubon to market its offshore mutual funds. In Hong Kong it continues to roll out guaranteed funds and look for opportunities in the nascent retail hedge fund space.