HONG KONG SFC RE-APPOINTS ALDER AS CEO

Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission has re-appointed Ashley Alder as chief executive for another three-year term from October 1. He first took up the role on October 1, 2011 and his current term will end on September 30.

SAVILLS IM POACHES EX-BLACKROCK EXEC FOR PAN-ASIA ROLE

UK-based property specialist Savills Investment Management has hired Greg Lapham in a role overseeing pan-Asia investments, Kiran Patel, deputy chief executive and chief investment officer told AsianInvestor.

The firm is still working out details of the newly created senior post and where Lapham will be based, said Patel. It will be in one of Savills IM’s Asia Pacific locations in Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia.

Lapham came on board in March and is currently in Australia and unable to move around because of the coronavirus lockdown, Patel said. 

He was most recently head of investments for Asia Pacific real estate at BlackRock, a position he left in September last year.

T. ROWE PRICE APPOINTS NEW HEAD OF AUS, NZ DISTRIBUTION

US investment manager T. Rowe Price has internally promoted Darren Hall to be its new head of Australia and New Zealand distribution, starting on August 28.

Darren Hall

Hall, who will remain in Sydney, is being promoted from head of intermediary for Australia to succeed Murray Brewer, who is retiring after 14 years with T. Rowe Price.

In his new role, Hall will report to Nick Trueman, Singapore-based head of distribution for Asia Pacific.

Hall has been working with T. Rowe Price for 13 years, and assisted Brewer in building out the fund manager’s local distribution team in Australia. Before joining T. Rowe Price in November 2007, he worked at Schroder Investments Australia and Credit Suisse Asset Management.

HSBC PB NAMES GLOBAL HEAD OF PRODUCTS AND INVESTMENTS

Lavanya Chari

HSBC Private Banking has named Lavanya Chari as global head of products, investment and collaboration to replace Stuart Parkinson, who left in December to become CEO of Lombard International Group.

Chari will join on July 20 from Deutsche Private Wealth Management, where she had been Singapore-based global head of products and solutions. She will relocate to Hong Kong after a period in Singapore in the new role.

Chari will report to the new chief executive of HSBC Private Banking, once they are unveiled, and Annabel Spring, head of customers and products for wealth and personal banking.

Chari had been with Deutsche Bank since 2002 and had held roles on the investment bank side before moving to the wealth business. Her former duties at Deutsche will be divided between products, under Christian Nolting, chief investment officer and head of wealth discretionary, and distribution, under Alessandro Caironi, head of advisory and sales.

This move is in line with the direction the business has been moving in for the past couple of years and particularly in December, said a Deutsche spokeswoman.

NNIP HIRES EM DEBT HEAD IN TEAM REBUILD

NN Investment Partners has hired Marcin Adamczyk as head of emerging market debt, effective from July 1. The Dutch fund house is rebuilding the desk after Adamczyk’s predecessor, Marcelo Assalin, and 10 other team members left to join US asset manager William Blair in November.

Marcin Adamczyk

Edith Siermann, head of fixed income and responsible investing at NNIP, had held the role of head of EM debt on an interim basis since then.

Based in NNIP’s head office in The Hague, Adamczyk will report to Siermann and oversee the EM debt portfolio, which was $10.8 billion in size as of March 31.

NNIP has added six other members to the team this year, including Keith Davies in February as a senior portfolio manager for hard currency debt in Singapore. Davies was previously a credit trader at ICBC Standard Bank in Singapore.

Adamczyk is rejoining NNIP, having worked there from 2013 to 2017 as lead portfolio manager for local-currency EM debt.

Most recently, however, he was chief executive of TFI PZU, the asset management unit of Polish insurer PZU Group, and later acted as adviser to the group’s board.

He has also worked for Nomura in London, Lombard Odier Investment Managers in Amsterdam and Geneva, and Dutch pension and fiduciary manager MN Services.

SC LOWY ADDS EUROPE MARKETS HEAD

SC Lowy, a Hong Kong-based debt investment firm, hired Richie Revill on May 8 as head of markets for Europe in London to service its client base in the region.

Richie Revill

The firm has created the role because it expects a wave of opportunities as loan sales from banks and leveraged structures accelerate rapidly amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Jan Zarzycki remains head of Europe sales, and Revill will assume day-to-day management of the London office, said a spokesman.

Revill was most recently co-head of distressed and credit special situations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Barclays in London. Before that he was Emea head of loans and distressed distribution at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

LENDLEASE NAMES ASIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT MD

Sydney-headquartered Lendlease has named Gan Chong-Min managing director of investment management for Asia, effective April 29.

Gan Chong Min
Gan Chong-Min

Based in Singapore, he reports to Ng Hsueh Ling, the firm’s managing director of Singapore and chief investment officer.

The firm's spokeswoman said Gan has replaced Kelvin Chow, who is now the chief executive officer of Lendlease Global Commercial REIT.

Gan joined from CapitaLand China, where he was managing director of fund management. The firm declined to comment on his departure.

ASHURST HIRES NEW FINANCIAL REGULATORY PARTNER

London-based Ashurst has hired Evan Lam as a director in its financial services group in Singapore, luring him from rival law firm Alen & Gladhill. He will also become a partner, subject to regulatory approval.

In this role, Lam reports to Patrick Phua, Asia head of global loans and global markets. He started on May 11. A spokeswoman told AsianInvestor the hire was not a direct appointment. Prior to Lam's hire, Ashurst covered financial regulatory matters through other partners, including Ben Hammond in Hong Kong, who remains with the firm, she added.

Lam has some 10 years experience covering financial regulation and over-the-counter derivatives.

His hire marks the third partner to be brought on by Ashurst in Asia over the past two months. Danny Tan joined in Singapore in April to lead the firm's Asia-Pacific investment funds practice, and Melody He joined in Hong Kong in March to strengthen the law firm's capital markets offerings.

The spokeswoman declined to comment on whether additional hires were being planned.