The Magazine of FundForum On The People & Ideas Shaping The Future Of Asset Management

New Horizons For Asian Asset Management

Asset ManagementBranding - A Matter of TrustStuart Green

What are the Latest Economic Trendsin Asia?Freya Beamish

Hedge FundCo-Investing:Where to Now?Joseph Pacini

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FundForum Asia 2014 - The LeadingKnowledge-Sharing And Networking Event

For The Regional Investment Management Industry

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The Magazine of FundForum On The People & Ideas Shaping The Future Of Asset Management

Dear Friends,

First of all a warm welcome from all the team to FundForum Asia 2014. We are very much looking forward to this year’s edition, which promises to be bigger and better still than previous years. Here are a few of my top picks for the week ahead:

highlight with over 40 top Industry Leaders sharing their experiences with the audience.

which are your focus, or the latest developments in China, there is bound to be something of interest for everyone.

managers for those of you who benefit from more technical take-away.

This year we have made the conference a more interactive experience. I hope you have all downloaded the MyFundForum Mobile App! This will be an invaluable source of information at the event and a great way of getting in touch with your fellow delegates. Throughout the conference sessions, we will also be asking you to have your say on some

use it!

We know that one of your principal reasons for attending FundForum Asia is always networking. Be sure to sign up for our VIP & CEO Lunchtables, Champagne Roundtables, and Off The Record sessions for some face time with our most prestigious speakers. I also hope you make the most of the networking breaks and cocktail receptions to ensure that this year’s FundForum Asia is a fruitful experience for you and your business.

Looking forward to seeing you in Hong Kong

Sarah Armstrong Conference Director, FundForum Asia 2014

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24th Annual FundForum International 2014 23 – 26 June 2014, The Grimaldi Forum, Monaco The World’s Leading Fund Management Conference +44 (0) 20 7017 7200 www.fundforuminternational.com

6th Annual FundForum USA 2014 27 – 29 October 2014, Mandarin Oriental, Boston The Only Event To Bring Together The U.S. & Global Asset Management Industry

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8th Annual FundForum Middle East 2014 The MENA Investment Management Forum 21 – 23 September 2014, Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Dubai The Middle East’s Most Prestigious Investment Management Conference +44 (0) 20 7017 7200 www.fundforumme.com

7th Annual FundForum Latin America November 2014, Venue TBC The Most Prestigious Asset & Wealth Management Conference In South America +44 (0) 20 7017 7200 www.fundforumlatam.com

Future ICBI FundForum Events Include

FUTURE EVENTS

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 – Welcome to FundForum Asia 2014

4 – Future FundForum Events

6 – Asia Economic Trends, with Freya Beamish

7 – An Asset Manager Perspective - Distribution in Asia, with Abhi Shroff

8 – CEO on the Record – China Update, with Gerard De Benedetto

9 – Cross-Board Funds, with Yoon Ng

10 – Branding in Asian Asset Management, with Stuart Green

12 – Wealth Management in Asia, with Seb Dovey

13 – HedgeFund Co-Investing, with Joseph Pacini

14 – Connect to the MyFundForum - Network Online

15 – FundForum TV – Watch interviews from FundForum Asia 2013

Exploring Themes of 2014

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ASIA ECONOMIC TRENDS

From an Asian perspective, it also created the conditions in which global banks could channel dollar liquidity toward their subsidiaries in the more open exporter economies that needed the funds for hedging purposes. The maturity mismatch this created made countries such as Korea vulnerable to the sudden reversal of funds that occurred in the financial crisis.

Since the financial crisis, the rest of Asia has stepped in to support global borrowing where the US left off, soaking up the Chinese spill over. However, this has happened through fundamentally different channels than before the crisis. As global banks began deleveraging, asset managers took up the role of channelling liquidity to Asia but this time in the fixed income market in the search for yield. This non-banking flow led to a bubble in Asian debt markets as economies in South Asia took on lending that was unjustified by fundamentals.

The surplus economies have fared better in this environment. Notably Korea has reduced the pre-crisis banking exposures and has been in a good position to cope with these new types of liquidity flows in Asia. But the major surplus country has become the threat on the horizon.

The RMB is significantly overvalued and much of the burden of excess saving has been pushed back on the Chinese economy. Chinese savings are still excessive but the current account has shrunk to 2.2% of GDP and the economy has gone for an internalisation of the process of wasting savings by leveraging up and going for large scale wasteful investment. With the currency this high, China cannot meet its growth targets without an alarming increase in debt ratios.

The most benign way out is through liberalisation of capital flows. Allowing pent up Chinese capital out of the economy would carry down the RMB and help smooth the transition from investment-led to consumer-led growth. This comes at the expense of a sizeable but manageable debt crisis in the shorter term.

The imbalances that were at the root of the financial crisis are still very much with us but the malaise has shifted around the world and is finally coming home to its origin. Excessive savings within Asia and primarily in China used to be recycled through the authorities’ foreign exchange intervention and to be channelled into the US treasury market. This helped drive down interest rates and created the environment in which a subprime-type crisis could flourish.

Freya Beamish joined Lombard StreetResearch in Autumn 2011.

She is based in our Hong Kong office andher focus is on the economies of China,Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea.

@Lombard_Street

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DISTRIBUTION IN ASIA

What then are the prospects for new-comers? Faced with a trade-off (at least initially) between focusing on the intermediary (retail) market versus the institutional market, a surprising number of new entrants relay to us their interest in developing their initial business with intermediary platforms. While the prospect of registering well-performing funds with the large regional bank platforms and watching fund sales grow seems attractive, the practicalities are clearly different, as most incumbents are well aware.

The scale of investment required to develop a presence with major distributors is not dissimilar to Western markets, but with the downside that Asia is not one market and the process needs to be repeated in each country,

of these individual markets yet compare to the largest Western markets. Across the 10 largest markets in Asia (excluding Japan), we track about US$1.5tn in mutual fund

Retail platforms in Asia require considerable servicing, both for gate-keepers as well as for advisors marketing to end-clients. This is a two-way street where it’s important for platform gate-keepers to understand managers’ capabilities (at a point in time when we’re seeing manager and fund lists shrink) and for the platform advisors to effectively market funds to their end-clients. Our research in Asia shows that few managers have the scale and distribution capabilities to effectively service platforms across multiple markets.

While most distributors use in excess of 100 funds on their platforms, we’ve found that fewer than 20 funds make up for roughly 80% of the sales among distributors

where fund sales are limited. We count a handful of pan-regional managers that have truly grown their intermediary business across Asia to a scale where their business is profitable.

On the other hand, a number of managers are taking closer look at their coverage models and are now largely focusing on the pan-regional retail banks and on the private banks (where the manager’s brand recognition is less important and servicing efforts can be concentrated).

platforms are receiving better coverage from managers that are important to their platforms, and managers have been able to develop more profitable businesses and better serve their clients.

Abhi ShroffManaging Director, Asia-Pacific

Abhi Shroff is a Partner and Managing Director at Greenwich Associates responsible for its Asia-Pacific (ex Japan) business. Abhi leads the firm’s investment management research and advisory business in the region.

@GreenwichAssoc

An Asset Manager Perspective

At Greenwich Associates, we’ve covered the distribution end of the asset management business in Asia for the past decade. In addition to the benefit of working with many of the largest asset managers, distributors and asset owners in the region, an interesting part of our work is helping new entrants consider and potentially develop their presence in Asia. We have seen enquiries from new entrants intensify over the past two years in

management business and an appetite to access new assets beyond largely stagnant home markets.

We are known for our conservative approach

general message continues to be that opportunities for asset management service-providers remain limited relative to developed markets, and competition is increasing at a pace faster than growth in asset pools.

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CEO ON THE RECORD

Regulatory change occurs incrementally and is usually difficult to forecast accurately

What this means for money managers is that firms cannot develop a strategy based on what might be implemented, but rather on what is implementable. Concurrently, the word “opportunity” is mightily overused to describe the business in China where a more accurate word is “executable”. Managers eying China may be looking in the wrong places for their strategy. Perhaps the single biggest regulatory wish in Asia and specifically Hong Kong and China is passporting or so-called mutual recognition. Though more than 18 months in development, market participants are still waiting for a concrete timeline and potential details. Indeed, there will certainly be some program at some point in the future, however, while many are waiting for the SFC and CSRC for a formal announcement, a slew of new programs were launched while others expanded: Everything from RQFII to online distribution, to private funds, and the expansion of asset classes including futures and other derivatives. There has never been more places for executable innovation. In addition, the CSRC continues to be open to new ideas that benefit investors and more China based managers are looking for strategic relationships rather than formal joint ventures. With significant reform accomplished and perhaps even more ahead what’s been missing is the commitment. This business requires extraordinary people with the tenacity to achieve success in an evolving environment. Not surprisingly, this is the same combination of attributes necessary to achieve success in most endeavors. On the ground in China, for sure there are talented individuals and teams; however, there is a significant shortage of this talent relative to the size of the current and future size of the industry.

The next 10 years will require progressive firms, with international talent to identify the needs for an entire new wave of wealth creation that may not identify with accepted industry norms. Those firms that commit early and are patient, will not only find success, but will ensure that they are the industry shapers rather than waiting on the sidelines for a regulatory windfall.

Gerard A. DeBenedettoCEO, AZ Investment Management Shanghai

An investment management executive with 20 years of buy and sell side experience. Mr. DeBenedetto is the Vice Chairman of An Zhong (AZ) Investment Management Hong Kong and the CEO of its China based operations.

China Will Continue to Move Forward (With or Without You)

what do you think? #FFAsia14

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CROSS-BOARD FUNDS

Yet today, cross-border fund penetration remains well under 15% for several reasons: declining investor demand for one, but far more influential is the impact of regulatory change.

Change is afoot, even for cross-border fund strongholds like Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The regulator in Taiwan, for instance, has allowed onshore funds to offer share classes in currencies other than the local currency, the New Taiwan Dollar, prompting a slew of renminbi-denominated product launches. Also from last year, foreign managers can

from three previously and six before then; only those with an onshore presence or seen as actively contributing to the growth of the local industry are exempt from the rule. Similarly in Hong Kong and Singapore, recent budgetary changes reveal greater tax incentives to boost managers’ onshore presence.

The onshore presence argument has received a shot in the arm from not one, but three, Asian fund passports proposals, with the Hong Kong-China mutual recognition agreement, which will allow Hong Kong domiciled funds to be sold in China and vice versa, has received the most attention for obvious reasons. It will for the first time allow foreign managers access to the potentially vast China mutual fund market without requiring the obligatory joint venture in the mainland. As always, it isn’t so straightforward, and lots of devils reside in the yet be to clarified detail.

Cerulli Associates has covered the Asian asset management markets for over 15 years, including being the first foreign research firm to cover both China and India’s mutual fund industry. We have long argued the point that Asia is essentially an onshore market, and a highly fragmented one at that. This should not undermine the role and importance of cross-border funds over the past 20 years, but this segment of the market will always represent a minority interest subject to the vagaries of regulatory oversight.

Cross-border funds have been the de-facto strategy for foreign asset managers in Asia ex-Japan for decades.

Yoon NgSingapore-based Yoon Ng is Asia Research Director at Cerulli Associates. For more information on this and other topics, please contact herat syng@cerulli.com

@cerulli_assoc

Passport control: Challenge of crossing borders

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BRANDING IN ASIAN ASSET MANAGEMENT

With regulation and taxation measures threatening returns, independence and business models, rebuilding trust with consumers and customers must be a key priority for financial services brands.

While some financial services brands are trying to “lie low,” hunkering down as they are buffeted by a seemingly endless stream of bad news stories, others are determined to draw a line in the sand and say “we have changed” and “we are different now.” Credible? Perhaps not immediately, but over time, and combined with actions not just words, banking brands can take their first steps on the long road to redemption and a restoration of trust.

Authenticity, as our Brand Strength factors indicate, is one of the hallmarks of a strong brand. For us, authenticity is about having clear and well-grounded values and delivering on expectations. Authentic brands have a firm identity, communicate their core values and prove through their culture, their day-to-day business practices and their relationships with customers, that they actually put their values into practice. Making good on promises and staying true to core values, consistently over time, is the only way to be perceived as authentic, credible, reliable: more trustworthy.

Understanding is another important Brand Strength factor—but it’s a two-way street. Customers want to know they’re being heard and brands have to work to ensure customers have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of a brand’s distinctive qualities and characteristics. Customers who understand what a brand stands for—and feel that a company understands their needs and values their input—are more likely to feel a level of intimacy, and therefore trust, in their service provider.

Trust continues to be the most pressing issue for financial services brands, in particular for banks, the most tarnished group of all. Public distrust makes banks, and potentially other financial services brands, an easy target for government

Asset Management Branding: A Matter of Trust

Stuart Green CEO, Asia Pacific, Interbrand

Stuart Green will be presenting a Special Guest Address this year at FundForum Asia on creating a winning brand in Asset Management.

@interbrand

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Greater support for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular can also be a strong catalyst for rebuilding trust. SMEs are recognized as being the engines of job creation and economic recovery, yet banks have been reluctant to lend to them.

Starved of funds, small and medium sized businesses have been left behind—and that is not helping to turn around the popular notion that banks are “the bad guys” and “only out for themselves.” However, supporting SMEs and creating success stories in this area, despite the risks of doing so, will help show that banks are acting for the good of society, not just their own pockets.

With trust at an all-time low, these steps must be taken very carefully: Listen to customers, lower self-orientation, be authentic, foster mutual understanding, be relevant and responsive. Realize that leadership sets the tone and the example for the entire organization, and that broader social and organizational changes can begin with the actions of one person: you. Granted, the higher your position in an organization, the greater your potential impact. But whether you’re a CEO or a sales representative, start with your own actions and work on improving your own interactions with customers. Live your company’s brand values every day and encourage your colleagues and employees to do the same. You may be surprised to see what a difference small, but steady steps in this direction will make.

Ultimately, business is about exchanging things of value. In order to get value from your client relationships, you need to give them something of value first, which involves really hearing them and responding to their needs. Financial services brands that put renewed effort into rebuilding strained relationships and tarnished images will differentiate themselves from brands that are still practicing business as usual—and further alienating clients (and disappointing the public) in the process.

In 2014 and beyond, it will be the brands that change voluntarily, transforming cultures of greed into cultures of cooperation and mutual benefit, that will survive in the long-term, withstand the vicissitudes of our uncertain times and build enduring business and brand value.

To foster understanding, focus must shift from self-orientation to client-orientation. Self-orientation is not selfishness, but a preoccupation with our own needs and goals that prevents us from hearing others. If we cannot hear what others really want and need, we can’t deliver for them. But if we tune into what our customers need, rather than what we need from them, our customers will feel like we care about them and will be more likely to consider us trustworthy.

Listening is the key to delivering solutions that are relevant (meeting the actual needs of specific customers) and being genuinely responsive (adapting quickly—and appropriately—to emerging needs and trends). Legitimate client focus, combined with relevance and responsiveness, will minimize the prevailing sense of self-orientation and begin to grow trust.

The effort to rebuild trust must start with the CEO and executive leadership team. There must be clarity about what the brand stands for, what purpose it serves, and a commitment to ensuring that this clarity flows from the leadership to

employees, customers and the broader public

There must also be alignment between what the company says and what the company does. It’s wonderful to speak of values like integrity, honesty and superior client service, but it’s even more important to live them.

Employees are also critical in helping to build the integrity of an organization. Their trust is an essential precursor to rebuilding trust with customers. They should be involved in a thorough review of the purpose and values of the organization and engaged and motivated behind a new promise. Further, their commitment should be tracked over time. Are employees really relating to clients in accordance with the company’s values, or are they cutting corners and promising things they can’t deliver? In large part, reforming an organization’s culture alone should lead to improved client outcomes, an improved reputation and, eventually, a restored public image.

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WEALTH MANAGEMENTIN ASIA

One of the main challenges in the Asian market is the economics of most of the private banks in the region. It is a quiet secret about the cost income ratios here Most international firms are finding it hard to make good money. In spite of this, they have put most of their global strategy with Asia providing them with that rider of income.

We do not expect to see huge consolidation in the Asian wealth management market. Many firms have committed too much to withdraw. What we will see is lots of domestic operators growing in their scale. We will also see a lot more independent wealth advisors. It is not really an industry that is fully developed here. It should be. And there is strong customer demand for it.

So there are a combination of issues coming; the economics presenting some business issues that the bigger firms have to face, demand from the clients who are beginning to look for independent solutions and the rise of more domestic and regional operators.

To harness growth opportunities here private banks need to reconsider the service delivery.

Currently, the business model here is primarily in two parts. The client relationship model requires a human interface. This is something that has got to improve. There is a shortage of modern private banking talent within this market. There is an oversupply of expensive, traditional private banking talent. Again, this has an impact on the economic models.

This part of the proposition - where you have a relationship between an individual and an individual - is supposed to be the essence of private banking. What is happening right now and it is stronger in this market than elsewhere in the world is the rise of the digital solution.

People often think of this as bi-polar. You have the human relationship and the digital relationship. That is not the case. What is going to happen in Asia more than anywhere else is a hybrid of both. It means you have to recruit a different type of professional to the one that we have in the business today.

This is not something that is going to happen overnight. But it is something that needs to happen fast to catch up with the pace of where digital is going.

Sebastian DoveySeb Dovey’s colleague, Pathik Gupta, will be joining us in Hong Kong this year to present some new research in Wealth Management.

@whatwealthneeds

Figure 6: Influences on investment decisions (by region) When you made your last investment, how influential were the following factors in your decisions to work with a particular financial provider?

Source: Futurewealth 2013: Helpful Investment Technologies, Scorpio Partnership. People often think of this as bi-polar. You have the human relationship and the digital relationship. That is not the case. What is going to happen in Asia more than anywhere else is a hybrid of both. It means you have to recruit a different type of professional to the one that we have in the business today.

This is not something that is going to happen overnight. But it is something that needs to happen fast to catch up with the pace of where digital is going.

How to make the most of Asia’s wealth management opportunity by Sebastian Dovey

what do you think? #FFAsia14

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DISTRIBUTION IN ASIA Co-investing offers investors the potential for higher risk-adjusted returns as it gives them a much more concentrated exposure to these investment opportunities created by systemic change in the financial landscape.

Investors are also able to get access to unique deals sourced from specialised professional networks with the potential for lower or reduced costs.However, to do so, investors must be very sophisticated in hedge fund due diligence as well as have the appropriate risk monitoring systems to track post-investment.

Co-investments with hedge fund managers also has the potential to diversify an alternative investment portfolio in a very profound way, whether it’s through a particular strategy, geography or investment opportunity.

In addition, the idiosyncratic nature of these

often deal specific rather than market related. A detailed assessment needs to be made to ensure that the deal provides an adequate level of return for the risk that is taken.

A portfolio which is customised in this way is much better suited to the current investment landscape characterised by low yields, sluggish economies, volatile markets and geopolitical uncertainties. It’s going to help achieve a specific objective around diversification or volatility, for example. It also brings greater transparency, as well as higher returns than blind funds and public markets.

The main challenge for investors is how to access to these co-investing opportunities and being able to respond quickly enough to the timeline that’s needed to close a potential deal. Generally, hedge funds invite other investors to co-invest when they determine that they are not able to absorb an entire identified transaction into their portfolio but this is not always the case. They are increasingly turning to other types of investors that can provide stable funding but tend to extend participation to trusted, external partners and so this can be a barrier to entry for most investors.

We believe that some of the biggest opportunities today lie in co-investing side-by-side with some of the most successful managers in the world to benefit from these unique investment opportunities and strong alpha.

Given the fallout from the global financial crisis, bank deleveraging, in response to tightened financial regulations, continues to contribute towards supply and demand capital imbalances which are set to continue for some years. The difference for investors now is that financial conditions have stabilised which is giving hedge funds some unique private market opportunities that include loan workouts, distressed assets and urgent capital needs. As an alternative to investing in a hedge fund, certain sophisticated investors may prefer to access these strategies by participating in transactions directly alongside

hedge fund co-investing.

By Joseph Pacini, Head of BlackRock Alternative Investors Asia Pacific

Joseph will be participating on a panel discussion at FundForum Asia on Hedging Strategies in the Asia region.

Hedge Fund Co-investing: The benefits of direct access to deals with hedge fund managers

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FUNDFORUM ASIA INTERVIEWS

Roy Stockell: The Future for Global Economic

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Andy Xie provides his ‘out of the box’ views on the Economy in Asia

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