Barings AM appoints head of Asian debt

Baring Asset Management has appointed Sean Chang as head of Asian debt to replace Thomas Kwan, who left the firm in January.

Mr Chang, who will start tomorrow (May 2), will be based in Hong Kong and will be lead manager on the $10m (£6.2m) Dublin-domiciled Asian Debt fund subject to regulatory approval, as well as managing all other Asian debt investments across the company.

He will report in to both Alan Wilde, head of fixed income and currency, and Wilfred Sit, chief investment officer, Asia.

Mr Chang will take over from Thanasis Petronikolos, who has been managing the Asian Debt fund since January when Mr Kwan, who was only at the firm for a few months having joined in April 2011, departed the company.

Mr Petronikolos, who is head of emerging market debt at Barings, will continue as backup manager on the fund and well as continuing to run the $142.7m Emerging Markets Debt Local Currency fund.

Mr Chang was previously at HSBC Global Asset Management, where he had been an investment director since 2007, and managed retail and institutional Asia debt portfolios.

Prior to that he has worked in senior fixed income roles at Mirae Asset Global Investment Management, Hang Seng Investment Management and Invesco Asia.

Mr Wilde said: “We believe Asian currencies in general should appreciate against developed market currencies and Asian debt will provide superior risk-adjusted returns and diversification benefits.

“As credit quality continues to improve we believe that Asian debt will increasingly assume the role of US treasuries in the asset allocation decisions of regional investors.”