CAPITAL GROUP APPOINTS INTERMEDIARIES HEADS IN ASIA

Capital Group has appointed two financial intermediaries heads and one investment director in the past two months.

Jeik Sohn

Jeik Sohn took up the Hong Kong-based role of managing director for financial intermediaries for Asia on July 23. He reports to Grant Leon, London-based managing director of financial intermediaries for Europe and Asia.

Although his title is different, Sohn takes on the responsibilities of Christian Leger, formerly Capital Group’s business development director covering wholesale clients. Leger’s licence with Capital ended on March 31 and he has since become head of Swiss retail and wholesale business at Allianz Global Investors in Zurich.

Sohn joined Capital Group from M&G Investments, where he was a Singapore-based relationship manager, according to his LinkedIn profile. M&G Investments declined to comment on his departure.

Reporting to Sohn, Kit Toh has been appointed as Singapore-based managing director for financial intermediaries for Southeast Asia. She joined the company on July 9.

In this role, Toh takes over some of the duties previously held by William Tan, a former Southeast Asia institutional and intermediary sales head, who left Capital Group a year ago. Tan is now head of intermediary channels for Asia at M&G Investments.

Prior to Capital Group, Toh held a client advisory role at JP Morgan Asset Management, which declined to comment on her departure.

Capital Group has also appointed Emerald Yau as Hong Kong-based investment director. In this newly-created role, she promotes equity strategies to financial intermediaries and institutional clients. She joined the company on August 13 and reports to Andy Budden, Singapore-based head of investment specialists for Asia Pacific. 

Budden looked after the duties now taken up by Yau before she came on board. The role was created as the company was building partnerships with more distributors and expanding the range of investment services on their platforms within Hong Kong. 

Yau was previously with BlackRock, where she was a Hong Kong-based director in the global emerging markets and Asian equity product strategy team. She is understood to have left in August.

A BlackRock spokesperson said Ben Bei had been appointed as director in the same team effective May 21, with a focus on building out the team’s China investment capabilities.

CITI HIRES FORMER FULLERTON AM COO

Citi has appointed Jeff Plein as head of securities services and issuer services operations for Asia Pacific ex-India, effective August 27.

Plein was most recently chief operating officer at Singapore-based Fullerton Asset Management, which last year agreed a strategic partnership with domestic insurer NTUC Income that included the latter buying a minority stake in the fund house.

He replaces Madan Kore, who will relocate to Pune as head of India CSC operations for SS&IS operations as well as its local franchise operations for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Remaining in Singapore for the new role, Plein reports to Brian Ovaert, global head of securities services and issuer services operations.

Named as AsianInvestor's COO of the year in 2017, Plein indicated his intention to leave Fullerton AM in September 2017 and left the firm in August this year. 

STANCHART PRIVATE BANK APPOINTS SOUTH ASIA MARKET HEAD

Standard Chartered private banking has appointed Ravi Ramakrishnan as market head for the global south Asian community (GSAC), effective August 30.

Based in Singapore, he reports to Srinivas Siripurapu, regional head of private banking for Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and South Asia as well as global head of GSAC.

He was previously market head for the Middle East and Africa at DBS Private Bank.

A spokeswoman for StanChart said the role was newly created and is an expansion of the frontline team, but did not specifically say who was handling Ramakrishnan’s responsibilities previously.

The private bank has also made another two hires: Sajith Menon and Benedict John have been hired as relationship managers GSAC. Both were previously private banking directors at Bank of Singapore.

Menon will report to Nakul Beri, managing director and relationship manager for GSAC, while John will report to Ankur Sahni, executive director and team leader for GSAC. Bank of Singapore did not respond to queries from AsianInvestor.

This brings the total number of senior hires StanChart has made to its GSAC team in Singapore since January to 14. 

CREDITEASE APPOINTS HEAD FOR NEW OVERSEAS WM UNIT

Beijing-based Creditease has appointed Zhao Ruobing as head of its overseas wealth management unit, which aims to tap affluent Chinese living abroad.

Zhao took up the new role on August 20 in addition to her role as a senior vice president of wealth management. She reports to Tang Ning, founder and CEO of Creditease, a company spokeswoman said.

Creditease had hired Danny Howell from consultancy Towers Watson in 2014 as head of offshore wealth management to build out that business. He left the firm several months ago. 

CITI APPOINTS HEAD OF CUSTODY AND FUND SERVICES

Citi has appointed Steven McCullough as head of custody and fund services and agency lending client executives in Asia Pacific.

McCullough is based in Hong Kong and report to Paul Marchington locally and Irimga Mckay globally. Citi declined to give further details on the new appointment, including his start date and who he replaced.

McCullough joined Citi from JP Morgan, where he was managing director for client service for Asia Pacific, according to his LinkedIn profile. JP Morgan declined to comment on his departure.

PARTNERS GROUP REPLACES CO-CEO

Partners Group, a private markets investment manager, has announced it is replacing one of its co-chief executives.

David Layton, a partner and head of private equity, will replace Christoph Rubeli as co-CEO from January 1, 2019. He will join André Frei, who has been co-CEO with Rubeli since 2013.

Rubeli will also step down from Partners Group's executive committee and global executive board by the end of this year, but he will remain a partner in the firm. He originally joined Partners Group in 1998 from UBS and also established Partners Group's footprint in Asia, spending several years as head of the Singapore office.

Layton joined Partners Group in 2005 in its headquarters in Baar-Zug, Switzerland. Prior to his current role as global head of private equity, he was head of private equity for the Americas, based in New York.

WALKERS NAMES PARTNER IN HK

International law firm Walkers has named James Gaden as a Hong Kong-based partner in the firm's corporate and investment funds group.

James Gaden

Gaden joined the company on August 27. While Gaden works alongside other partners closely, managing partner Andy Randall has an overall supervising role, a company spokesman said.

When asked whether Gaden had replaced anyone, the spokesman said one of the funds partners has retired from the firm, but Gaden was not really "replacing" that partner. He did not elaborate further.

Gaden was previously a partner at another law firm Maples and Calder, which has not replied to AsianInvestor’s query about his departure.

CREDIT SUISSE APPOINTS CEO FOR JAPAN

Credit Suisse has appointed Makoto Kuwahara as Tokyo-based chief executive for Japan.

Kuwahara will join the bank in mid-November and will report to Helman Sitohang, Singapore-based CEO for Asia Pacific. Kuwahara will have oversight of Credit Suisse’s businesses and regulatory activities in Japan.

He is replacing Martin Keeble, who is leaving Credit Suisse, a company spokeswoman said.

Kuwahara is now still with Deutsche Bank, where he holds the positions of chief country officer for Japan, representative director and president of Deutsche Securities, a company spokesman said. His last day with the company has not yet been confirmed.

Tamio Honma will succeed Kuwahara in all his positions at Deutsche Bank after the latter’s departure, while retains his current responsibility as co-head of institutional client group for Asia Pacific, the spokesman said.

SENIOR EMERGING MARKETS RM LEAVES JULIUS BAER

Dominik Fuerst has resigned from his role as senior relationship manager and executive director for emerging Asia at Julius Baer.

Julius Baer declined to comment on whether a replacement had been named or when Fuerst would leave. The Swiss bank's emerging Asia team, which includes the Philippines and Thailand, is led by Angela Bow, who is head of Japan, emerging markets and intermediaries.

Story updated to describe NTUC Income's acquisition of a minority stake of Fullerton Asset Management and entry into a strategic partnership, and to reflect that Danny Howell had formerly been head of offshore wealth management at Creditease.