Soo Nam Ng has joined as head of Asian equities (Asia) from Nikko Asset Management where he was chief investment officer. Bernard Lim joins as senior fund manager, Asia Pacific ex Japan, Christine Seng as fund manager, Singapore and Australia, Weixiong Liang as analyst and Wee Jia Low as senior associate. The team will be based in Threadneedle’s Singapore office.
Soo Nam Ng will report to Leigh Harrison, head of equities at Threadneedle, while Bernard Lim, Christine Seng, Weixiong Liang and Wee Jia Low will report to Soo Nam.
The new team will work closely with Threadneedle’s existing Asian Equities team of seven headed by Vanessa Donegan, which currently manages £3.6bn out of London and Singapore (as at 31 August 2013). The Singapore-based team will focus on further building the firm’s offering for Asian investors, but have not yet been assigned any specific funds to run. Equally, no new fund launches for the group have yet been announced.
Threadneedle currently has two funds in the Asia ex Japan sector – the Threadneedle Pacific Growth and Threadneedle Asia funds. The Threadneedle Asia fund is run by Vanessa Donegan and is currently 44th out of 71 funds in the Asia ex Japan sector over three years. The Pacific Growth fund has delivered 3.9% over three years, behind the sector average of 8%.
Mark Burgess, Threadneedle’s chief investment officer said: “We have a strong team-based approach at Threadneedle, with a culture of open discussion, debate and sharing of ideas to give us a global perspective advantage. We are very much looking forward to the new team joining in Singapore – the breadth of expertise adds a new dimension to our Asian equities investment capability and we look forward to benefiting from their knowledge, insights and experience on the ground in Asia.”
Soo Nam Ng has focused exclusively on Asia Pacific ex Japan equity markets for 18 years. He began his career at Schroders Investment Management in Singapore in 1995. He had been at Nikko Asset Management Asia since 2007, where his responsibilities included equity and fixed income specialists. Lim joins Threadneedle from Fullerton Fund Management where he was senior vice president, Equities, with responsibility for the firm’s Asia Focus mandates. Seng joins from Nikko Asset Management where she was a portfolio manager with responsibility for a dividend yield fund. Weixiong Liang and Wee Jia Low also join from Nikko Asset Management where they were portfolio manager and equity analyst respectively. All new team members have worked together before.
Threadneedle established a presence in Asia in 2008 and has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Australia. The company last year announced plans to expand its Asian business and that of Columbia Management, the US-based asset management subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial.