Los Angeles-headquartered Capital Group, with US$1.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM) is expanding its distribution capabilities in Asia in a bid to tap the rapidly growing wealth management and retail investment markets in this region.
Economos |
In an interview with The Asset, Thomas Quantrille, president of Capital Group Japan and head of Asia Pacific, says the privately-held investment firm aims to build a balanced portfolio of equities and fixed income assets in the region in the next 3-5 years with a focus on active investment management
“We have US$100 billion invested in Asia as well as US$18 billion sourced from investors in the region. Before, we did our distribution through third parties so we have big third party distribution relationships. But we opened up our office in Australia in 2011 and have been consistently adding resources,” Quantrille says.
Although Capital Group has existing offices in Japan, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Mumbai, it has kept a relatively low profile in Asia over the years and is admittedly largely unknown among investors in the region.
The expansion will see the addition of an unspecified number of staff throughout the region, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore, focusing on sales, distribution and investor solutions.
“We’re in a build out mode so you will see net new additions to our team, significant in terms of the over all effort. You’ll see both sales and service people as well as investor solutions people added to the team focusing on Asia,” says Andrew Economos, senior vice president for strategic solutions, Asia of Capital Group.