Published by AsianInvestor – 23rd May 2019
The US fund giant has hired the former China head of institutions of rival Janus Henderson as it works to build up its mainland business.
State Street Global Advisors has appointed Charles Zhao as its new head of institutions for China as part of a wider and belated push to develop the US fund house’s business in the country, AsianInvestor has learned.
Zhao, the former head of institutional sales for China at rival asset manager Janus Henderson Investors, replaced Cynthia Bi in March. Zhao left Janus Henderson in late October having been with the firm since 2013.
The SSGA role had been vacant since Bi left last year after some nine years with the $2.5 trillion fund house, a spokeswoman told AsianInvestor. Shirley Hung, head of institutions for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, had overseen the China institutional business in the interim period.
Hong Kong-based Zhao leads the effort to maintain and grow SSGA’s client relationships in mainland China with respect to offshore investment strategies, the spokeswoman said.
He now reports to June Wong, SSGA’s head of Asia ex-Japan, and works closely with Alex Sun, who also joined in March as head of China and of the firm’s local wholly foreign-owned entity (WFOE).
China Push
SSGA appears to be moving to expand its China team, despite parent group State Street announcing in January that it was cutting global headcount by 1,500 (around 6%), which included layoffs in Asia.
The fund house obtained its WFOE licence in December and is understood to be awaiting an onshore private fund management licence.
The hires of Sun and Zhao represent the first phase of the firm’s China growth strategy, the spokeswoman said.
“China is a key growth area for State Street Global Advisors and we expect more resources to be added to our China business in the coming years,” she told AsianInvestor.
SSGA is a relative latecomer among international fund houses when it comes to building onshore operations in China. It does not appear in consultancy Z-Ben Advisors’ annual top-25 list of foreign asset managers ranked by the strength of their mainland businesses. The 2019 edition was released only last month.
