The rise of Asia's bond market has been relentless in the past years. Primary market activity has crossed US$200 billion so far in what will likely be another record year. It has also attracted the world's biggest buyside houses and among the most Astute Investors to this part of the globe.
Curiously, one erstwhile sellside house has shaped the careers of among the most well-regarded investors. Asset Benchmark Research's (ABR) annual ranking of the most Astute Investors finds that several have worked at one time in their career with Lehman Brothers.
From the once powerful Wall Street house, which collapsed in September 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis, emerged the likes of Assan Din who until October 2016 was running his own credit hedge fund, Saka Capital.
Before he closed the fund, Din was among the top-ranked fixed income investors tracked by Asset Benchmark Research. He worked at Lehman as a credit trader in Asia for nearly a decade until 2006 moving from Asia to Europe in 2004. Din joined Richard Rieder when R3 Capital Management was set up in 2008, which started life under the Lehman umbrella.
R3 Capital Management was taken over by BlackRock following the collapse of Lehman in April 2009. Rieder, who became the chief investment officer of fixed income at BlackRock in February 2016, was formerly the head of Lehman’s global principal strategies and spent 22 years at the Wall Street firm.
Ronie Ganguly, which ranked second in the ABR Astute Investor ranking for Singapore, now works for Rieder at BlackRock. Ganguly was formerly with Pimco and was the co-head of high yield trading at Deutsche Bank.
Another ranked ABR Astute Investor and Lehman veteran is Benjamin Fuchs who is the founder of BFAM Partners. Fuchs was with Lehman from 1996 to 2008. Following the firm’s takeover by Nomura of its Asian operation, he became a proprietary trader with Nomura’s global opportunities group until 2012 when he set up BFAM with matching seed investment from the Japanese investment bank.
Fuchs hired Eugene Fung, formerly head of Asia-Pacific convertible trading at Credit Suisse in May 2016. Fung, who is the top-rated Astute Investor in Hong Kong this year, was with Lehman Brothers in Asia from March 2004 until two days before Lehman filed for bankruptcy in September 2008.
Sellside who voted for Fung praise him for his unique trade ideas. “He respects us and always leaves something on the table,” says one. BFAM is one of the few hedge funds to have managers ranked in ABR’s top-rated investor list for consecutive years since 2014.
Former top-ranked Astute Investor for Hong Kong from 2010 to 2016 was Desmond How, who was with Nomura Global Capital Management until it closed in the summer. His superior at Nomura, Christian Howe, has also left Nomura and started with Credit Suisse at the end of September 2017 as head of fixed income trading. Howe was previously with Lehman in Tokyo as a credit trader and moved to Nomura following the takeover.
Other buyside firms that have recruited from the sellside include Pimco, which hired Abhijeet Neogy, who was with Barclays as a derivatives trader until he joined the buyside in 2013 as a portfolio manager based in Singapore. Neogy tops the ABR ranking in Singapore. Before Barclays, he was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He is an MBA graduate from Columbia University just as the financial crisis broke in 2008.
Two other top-rated fixed income investors are Boon-Ping Oh with CA Indosuez running the discretionary portfolio at the private bank (ranked third in Singapore), and Salman Niaz with Goldman Sachs Asset Management (ranked fourth). The two have always been on the buyside with Oh formerly with SSGA and UOB Asset Management while Niaz was with GSAM Liberty Harbor, a credit fund of GS investing in unrated debt of mid-sized companies.
Another emerging trend in this year’s most Astute Investor ranking is the number of investors specializing in Chinese credits who now have been cited by the sellside. That should not come as a surprise given that close to 70% of new-issue G3 bond activity consists of Chinese names.
Top-ranked investors include Charlie Hu at China Life Franklin Asset Management who came second in the Hong Kong ranking. Sellside praise him for making sharp calls on both new issues and secondary bonds. Hu was with Morgan Stanley from 2011 to 2016 as a high-yield trader specializing in China US dollar bonds. He also worked briefly at China Asset Management Co until June this year.
Ranked third in Hong Kong is Edwin Kam who returned to Value Partners in September 2016 following a stint at Millennium Management. “He follows up on lots of event-driven names and risk calls,” shares one sellside in voting for Kam.
Danicus Zhang at BOCOM International Holdings and Aaron Kung at China International Capital Corporation are also making their mark in this year’s tally. Previously with GF Global Capital, Zhang is now a portfolio manager at the investment arm of Bank of Communications. Kung is a newcomer to the list and trades for the onshore investment bank.
This year, Asset Benchmark Research ranks a record nine investors in China. Sheng-Wei Zhou at China Zheshang Bank (CZ Bank) takes the top spot. New onshore names include Feng Guo at China Merchants Bank, Ning Zheng also at CZ Bank and Wei Huang at China Industrial Bank.
Overall, in 2017 more than 670 investors were nominated of which 106 were ranked across 10 markets. The ranking, which is compiled from the votes of about 640 sellside top-rated individuals including analysts, economists/strategists, salespeople and traders, is to recognize investors for their knowledge of credits and markets, their acumen in making investment decisions and their trading skill.
For the latest rankings of the most Astute Investors in Asian G3 bonds for 2017, please click here.
For the latest rankings of the Top Investment Houses in Asian G3 bonds for 2017, please click here.
To find out more about Asset Benchmark Research and our Asian G3 Bond Benchmark Review, please click here.
The winners of most Astute Investors in Asian G3 Bonds for 2017 will be honoured at a gala dinner. For further details, please click here.
Additional reporting by Jacky Fung
