Boston-headquartered investment manager, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo LLC (GMO) announced on Friday (October 15) the appointment of Amy Shang (pictured) to its Asia Pacific client relations team, effective October 11.
Based in Singapore, Shang’s remit will see her assess growth opportunities and lead the company’s business development efforts in Greater China. She joins the firm from Dimensional Fund Advisors, where she most recently held the post of regional director for Greater China, focussing on key institutional relationships.
Zane Bernstein, head of Asia Pacific Client Relations confirmed with FinanceAsia that the company plans to recruit an associate in Singapore to assist Amy in her role. He commented on GMO’s growth plans, explaining that in recent years the company has expanded in Hong Kong and Singapore where it has been active since the 90s, and it continues to build upon its strategic relationships in China and Japan.
Shang shared with FA the trends she is seeing across Asia’s capital markets. “In general, I think large institutional investors in Asia are constantly looking for partnerships with asset managers to build their asset allocation capability and long-term strategic plans.”
She noted that concerns around inflation have increased during the pandemic, with the low yield environment posing challenges for fixed income and pushing demand towards high yield and private credit strategies.
“Recent instability in both Chinese equities and bonds has added more uncertainty to the markets and investors have started questioning if this is a fundamental change or just a short-term volatility… Some investors are concerned about elevated asset prices in the US. Trends especially on equity investing are toward to global equities for diversification purpose.”
Lead portfolio manager, Lucas White added that the firm is seeing appetite by Asian investors for its Climate Change strategy, which builds upon the work of the company’s co-founder, Jeremy Grantham and has grown to comprise $917 million in assets under management since inception in April 2017.
He said, “it is often noted that Europe and even Australia had for many years led the movement on ESG related matters, however, we have seen a greater deal of progress and interest in Asia. From the Chinese government’s top-down mandate on climate change, pollution reduction, a green economy, through to Singapore’s proactive green initiatives – Asia at a government level has developed quickly and strongly.”
White noted that a disciplined, value-oriented approach with careful examination of the fundamentals is critical in navigating the sector, which is “likely to be rife with hype and stories,” but that ESG offers tremendous scope to generate strong returns.
Bernstein added that consumer awareness and interest in ESG issues (slavery, company management and ethics) have also increased dramatically. The firm believes that ESG interest in Asia is continuing to grow and will develop strongly over the coming years.
