Le Saux has 17 years’ experience in the Japanese equity market having worked for fellow Swiss firm UBP as well as Credit Suisse Asset Management and Lazard in this area.
He will run institutional mandates for Syz & Co, the parent company of Syz Asset Management, alongside his running of the Japan Opportunities Fund.
Syz said the arrival in power of Shinzo Abe in Japan, the implementation of a much more expansionary monetary policy and the sharp drop in the value of the yen might mark the beginning of a return to favour for the Tokyo stock exchange.
“The Japanese market has been generally moribund since the real-estate bubble burst in 1990 and the long period of deflation that has plagued the Japanese economy every since, having hardly attracted investors since,” the firm said.
But it added that the economy was the third largest and the stock market the third largest in terms of market capitalisation and so it the country cannot be ignored in the context of international asset management.
As a result of Le Saux’s hire the Oyster Japan Opportunities Fund will be more agnostic in terms of style, sector and market capitalisation, Syz said.
Until now, under Portfolio Adviser award-winner Morant Wright in London, the fund has had an orientation towards mainly domestic small- and medium-sized companies.
Le Saux will use a bottom-up approach to focus on undervalued companies and the portfolio will be balanced between domestic orientated stocks and international exporting companies.
