JP Morgan Asset Management is looking to base institutional sales staff in China to capitalize on opportunities directly depending on regulations, said the firm’s head of sovereign and institutional strategy for Asia ex-Japan Rachel Farrell.
"At some point we would potentially look to base people onshore in China, depending on regulations and the evolution of institutional business in China", Farrell was quoted as saying by AsianInvestor.
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Farrell said that the asset manager operated with offices in Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Singapore, Sydney and Melbourne, but was still covering mainland China out of Hong Kong.
Farrell, who has been recruited as the firm’s head of sovereign and institutional strategy for Asia Pacific ex-Japan last August, also pinpointed Malaysia as one of the possible options for developing an onshore presence.
Farrell was promoted to assume the responsibilities of Andrew Economos, who previously served as the firm’s managing director of asset management, and Asia head of sovereign and institutional strategy.
In her new role, Farrell will lead a team comprising nearly 20 client advisers, 10 sales support staff, along with a couple of specialists for insurance and consultants.
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By GlobalDataFarrell pointed out that the team would mainly focus on using the firm’s multi-asset capabilities to offer various investment solutions, particularly non-benchmarked to cater to clients’ inflation-plus or total return goals.
"What has also become important is the extent to which they can take on illiquidity risk to add returns to portfolios, in areas such as infrastructure, private credit and private equity," she told to AsianInvestor.
She further stressed that they will be talking more about currency management over the next one year as clients were now trying to understand how to look at currencies in their portfolios, given volatility from divergent monetary policies globally.
Farrell has now relocated from Singapore and will be based in Hong Kong to assume the role in full in December of this year. She continues to report to the firm’s global head of sovereigns Patrick Thomson.
She has also joined the Asian investment management operating committee of the firm, having earlier covered sovereign and institutional strategy for South and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
