US-headquartered investment firm, T Rowe Price, has announced via media note the appointment of Nicholas Tong, to lead the firm’s distribution efforts across Southeast Asia.
Based in Singapore, Tong’s appointment took effect yesterday (Monday, October 09) and sees him report into Glen Lee, head of Intermediary Distribution for Asia ex-Japan. He joins the company from Wellington Management, where he was responsible for developing business with strategic private and retail banking clients.
“Nick will be focussing on broadening our distribution network,” Lee told FinanceAsia.
“T Rowe Price’s equity funds have been well distributed across various key platforms. In addition to this, we look to introduce more best-in-class funds including fixed income and multi-asset income solutions,” he added.
The firm first entered Asia in 1987, before opening an office in Singapore in 1996 to cater to the opportunity presented by the Southeast Asian region.
“For Southeast Asia, Singapore remains the key market where there is still plentiful opportunities for [us] to expand our business,” he told FA, adding that the firm has a number of key strategic local partners in additional Southeast Asian markets.
In terms of trends across the region, Lee noted how gatekeepers can be selective regarding which strategies to onboard: “They gravitate towards active managers and differentiating strategies that are able to provide sustainable returns and ranking favourably compared to peers. As a result, we tend to see the top one to two strategies or funds within an asset class getting the bulk of the flows.”
Lee said that the firm would continue to leverage existing relationships with key financial institutions to expand the scope of its clients. He added, “There are some key regional and local banks that have significant market shares which we would be very keen to work with.”
