Mr Graham is an investor with experience in multi-asset research and portfolio management.
In January, he joined Eastspring Investments, the Asian investment arm of Prudential, as chief investment officer of multi-asset solutions.
Based in its Singapore office, he has been growing its multi-asset team ever since.
Before joining Eastspring, he was head of asset allocation and CIO of multi-asset solutions at BNP Paribas Investment Partners, where he managed a team of 25.
Previously, he was managing director and co-head of global multi-asset strategies and multi-asset client solutions at BlackRock, and also worked at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, after kickstarting his career as an actuary consultant at Mercer in 1995.
He says: “I actually started on the actuarial career path, but soon became disillusioned with the parts of it that didn’t involve investment, because that’s what interested me most.
“So that's why I left actuarial consulting behind at Mercer and moved on to doing the investment itself. I haven't looked back.”
Evolution of the marketplace
Over the past two decades, Mr Graham says he has witnessed significant change in the investment marketplace.
He recalls: “When I joined Mercury back in 1997, it was during the week of the Asian crisis, and that was my first foray into the investment world – quite a baptism of fire.”
Since then, he says the market has evolved considerably.
“The asset allocation universe back then was more about having a bit of domestic equities, a bit of overseas equities, and a bit of domestic bonds and overseas bonds,” he says.
“Over time, we have seen that move significantly with the birth of exchange traded funds, derivatives etc, really allowing asset allocators to run multi-asset portfolios rather than just benchmark relative balanced funds.
“Now, when we look at investment ideas, we are trying to select the best asset to reflect the idea – whether that’s currency, bonds, credit or equities – and so that gives us a real flexibility in order to generate returns for clients.”
He says investor behaviour has also changed, with investors today showing more interest in total returns.
“They are also more outcome-oriented and want to think about 'what problem is my investment manager trying to solve; is it growth, saving for retirement, or another future expenditure?’”
Mr Graham notices there is a growing interest in sustainability-focused investments.
“Whether you look at that through the environmental, social and corporate governance lens or the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment lens, that’s an objective clients are increasingly looking for,” he explains.
“It is not just about investment returns any more, but making sure you are doing well for the environment and social structure as well.”
Growth in Asia
The UK investor has a huge opportunity to invest in Asia, in terms of higher growth potential and diversification away from the local market, suggests Mr Graham.
He adds: “The market in Asia is projected to hit $40trn (£31trn) by 2025, with wealth management platforms set to double in size in the next eight years.”
There is also another structural shift he says is going to be enormous: intergenerational wealth transfers between baby boomers and millennials.
“If you look at the data, there are 450m millennials in China and India – that is bigger than the current US and western workforce,” he says.
“Asia has three of the largest six economies on its doorstep: Japan, China and India.
“So it doesn’t seem right that less than half of the global multi-asset market is currently coming out of Asia – huge new trends [are] coming and being [based] in Asia really helps.”
Indeed, he says Eastspring Investments continues to look for talented people to help grow its business offering.
“Long-term parents such as Prudential mean we can still fill a headcount – but we have to make sure we get the right people,” he notes.
“We’re trying to build a world class investment team so that we’re not just going to be an Asian investor for Asian clients, we’re also going to be offering products to the rest of the world.”
Absolute returns
Mr Graham says fulfilling clients’ investment objectives is paramount, and he says Eastspring is looking at absolute returns.
He explains: “This is a large and growing area that will become more important in the next 12 to 18 months, as investors begin to worry about whether and/or when the next recession is coming.
“So absolute return funds are going to be key for our investors to navigate the next downturn.
“We will all be looking at which assets will generate the best returns and income for clients, and we’re doing portfolio construction against these objectives to make sure primary objectives are fulfilled first.”
Victoria Ticha is a features writer for Financial Adviser and FTAdviser
