Hong Kong-based Harvest Global Investment refrained from following suit when most other units of Mainland asset management firms shifted focus from equity to money market funds as a property crisis weighed on the world’s second largest economy and dragged down its stock markets.
But that appears to be changing. According to a Reuters report on January 21, Harvest Global’s parent company, Beijing-based Harvest Fund Management, is downsizing its international business and laying off more than one-third of staff at the Hong Kong firm.
Citing market sources, the news agency reported that the affected staff received notices in the week of January 8 to leave within three months.
It says Thomas Kwan, chief executive of Harvest Global, has also stepped down and has been replaced by portfolio manager Han Tongli.
Spokespersons for Harvest Fund and Harvest Global did not immediately respond to questions from Asia Asset Management (AAM).
Harvest Fund, China’s ninth largest asset manager with around 1.45 trillion RMB (US$202.4 billion) of assets under management, actively expanded its international businesses under the leadership of Zhao Xuejun, its chairman, according to a fund manager in Hong Kong.
But geopolitical tensions have made foreign investors less keen on China and “the tables have been turned,” he tells AAM, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He says Harvest Global Investment remained focused on environmental, social and governance-related investments when peers shifted to money market funds. “The strategy dealt a blow to HGI’s business.”
