Allianz names new Asia insurance CIO

Nov 20, 2014

Eugen Loeffler has moved from Allianz Global Investors in Korea to Singapore to oversee the German group’s Asia insurance assets. His predecessor, Bernd Gutting, is retiring.

Allianz Investment Management, which oversees the portfolio of German insurer Allianz, has named a new chief executive and chief investment officer for its Asia business.

Eugen Loeffler transferred to Singapore from Seoul in August to take up the combined role. He was previously Korea head of investments at Allianz Global Investors (AllianzGI), the group's third-party fund management unit. He now reports to Guenther Thallinger, Munich-based CEO of Allianz IM.

Loeffler replaces Bernd Gutting, who will support Allianz IM until the end of this year, when he will retire. Gutting has been with the group for 25 years, and his other roles include group CIO at Allianz IM and Germany CEO at Allianz Capital Managers.

Since 2010 Loeffler had been Asia-Pacific CIO at AllianzGI based in Seoul. But after the restructuring in 2012, which saw RCM folded into the AllianzGI brand, David Tan became Asia-Pacific CIO for fixed income and Raymond Chan CIO for equities for the expanded AllianzGI. Loeffler had remained as head of investments for Korea.

Loeffler has not been directly replaced in that post. Looking after investments in Korea now are Park Jaehong, head of fixed income; Sean Hwang, head of equity; and Hwang Hyuncheol, head of multi-asset and alternatives. All three report directly to Eugene Chung, Korea CEO at AllianzGI since June last year.

Before moving to AllianzGI, Loeffler ran investments for Allianz’s insurance companies in Switzerland and headed the global equity team for Allianz IM. Before that, he had been CEO of Hana Allianz Investment Trust Management (now AllianzGI Korea) from 2001 to 2005.

As of September this year, Allianz IM Asia had €24.4 billion ($30.6 billion) in general-account assets under management and €8.8 billion in unit-linked assets.

As of September last year, Allianz IM had around 100 investment staff across the region. At that time, it had the vast bulk of its Asia portfolio (90-95%) in fixed income, with 2-4% in equity and 2-3% in property and alternatives. The rest was in cash.

Allianz has life businesses in the following Asian countries (in order of size): Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka and Laos. It also has a life joint venture in India and property-and-casualty businesses in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.