The fund house said Awdry is presently managing several Chinese equity funds and mandates totalling $842.3m in assets.
Awdry will remain based in London while working closely and sharing resources with the Asia ex-Japan equities team in Singapore.
He reports to Andrew Gillan, head of Asia ex-Japan equities.
“His [Awdry’s] appointment will provide focus to our Chinese equities offering, as we continue to build our Asian equities hub in Singapore, including the hiring of more locally-based China focused analysts to work with him on this fund,” Gillan said.
Awdry joined Henderson in 2011 as part of the firm’s acquisition of Gartmore, where he had been a member of the emerging markets team since 2001. He assumed the role of investment manager and began managing Chinese equities in 2003. In June 2006, he became a lead China fund manager at Gartmore.
Following Awdry’s appointment as China fund manager, the assets managed by the Asia ex-Japan team will increase to $3.2bn from $2.4bn, the firm said.
In November, Alexander Henderson, managing director of Asia, detailed the firm's expansion plans in Asia to Fund Selector Asia. Accordingly, the firm intends to increase the source of AUM from Asia to 15% of total from the current 3%, double regional headcount and develop local products.
According to FE Analytics, Awdry has been managing the $820bn Henderson China Opportunities Fund since 2006.
On 30 September, Henderson had $124.1bn in assets under management on behalf of clients in the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.
