Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) has appointed Victor Suen as managing director and team head for the Greater China market.

There is a growing consensus that the traditional model for asset allocation in China, which is based on investing in companies that are considered to be the most efficient in allocating their capital, has been upended by major developments in the market. These developments are the government’s focus on “common prosperity”, the advance of the state and retreat of the private sector, and the government’s long-term green development strategy – not necessarily in that order.

Schroder BOCOM Wealth Management on Wednesday (January 26) received approval for business commencement from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), becoming the third Sino-foreign joint venture wealth management company in the country.

With huge capital flows, rapid wealth generation and a sophisticated financial system, Hong Kong is on track to be a family office hub. As of 2020, its private banking and private wealth management business attributed to family offices and private trust clients reached HK$2 trillion (US$257 billion). And the business is growing fast.

Royal Bank of Canada is moving its wealth management platform in Asia to a cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) model through its technology partnership with Avaloq.

Asia Alternatives, a private equity fund of funds, has announced the final close of Asia Alternatives Capital Partners VI (AACP VI) and related funds with US$2 billion in new commitments.

Growing enthusiasm over environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues has prompted property developers to pivot towards a more sustainable model. At the same time, the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the adoption of the more flexible work-from-home arrangement, which in turn has fuelled demand among homebuyers for a greener living environment.

The advent of a shooting war in Ukraine, if it happens, will likely stoke the already alarmingly high inflation level and push oil prices to over US$100 per barrel on the back of a possible supply shortage in Europe.

Robeco has appointed Thu Ha Chow to the newly created role of head of fixed income Asia. Chow is based in the Singapore office, where additional new hires in the fixed-income and sustainability domains will expand the local team to eight investment professionals.

Investment manager Ninety One has appointed Ben Lambert as co-portfolio manager for 4Factor European Equities. The 4Factor team comprises bottom-up, fundamental equity stock pickers who provide regional and global solutions.

Thematic exchange-traded funds and exchange-traded products listed globally gathered net inflows of US$2.38 billion in December, bringing net inflows for 2021 to US$80.54 billion, the second highest on record after the US$106.19 billion in 2020, according to ETFGI.

Citi has appointed Li-Gang Liu as Asia-Pacific head of economic analysis for Citi Global Wealth Management (CGWM). Based in Hong Kong, he will report to Steven Wieting, chief investment strategist and chief economist for CGWM, and Roger Bacon, Asia-Pacific head of CGWM APAC ultra-high-net-worth business.

Keppel Capital Holdings has secured US$1.1 billion in total commitments for its Keppel Data Centre Fund II (KDC Fund II), including investment from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to achieve its final close.

Infini Capital Management, a Hong Kong-headquartered hedge fund, is reopening its Infini Master Fund to external investors. Infini has also appointed Jim Song as a portfolio manager, among several major hires across its offices.

Qontigo, a provider of innovative risk, analytics, and index solutions, has teamed up with RepRisk, a pioneer in environmental, social and governance (ESG) data science. The partnership will enable Qontigo to gain access to RepRisk’s ESG risk data via Axioma portfolio analytics and risk models, and build indices under its STOXX family of brands.