Rohit Shroff

Man Group, the global, technology-empowered active investment management firm, has announced that Rohit Shroff has joined its Sales team in Australia, reporting to Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director, Asia ex-Japan, at Man Group.

In his new role, Rohit will focus primarily on relationships with institutional clients and prospects of Man Group, as well as broader business and brand development.  He will work closely with the Australian and wider APAC regional team.

Rohit joins Man Group from PIMCO, where he spent 10 years and worked in both the UK and Australia. At PIMCO, Rohit focused on fixed income, hedge fund, private credit and other alternative investments. Rohit holds certifications as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA). He also has an Executive MBA from London Business School and an undergraduate degree from Monash University, Australia.

Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director for Man Group in Asia Pacific ex-Japan, said: “Rohit’s significant experience and knowledge of the Australian financial services landscape are fantastic assets for our team, and we are really pleased to have someone of his calibre on board. Australia is a growing area of focus for us as we continue to see opportunities to create innovative solutions that address complex investment needs. Rohit’s appointment reflects our desire to continue building out both our investment and distribution teams here and follows portfolio manager Andrew Swan joining us in 2020.”

Rohit Shroff, Director of Sales for Man Group in Australia, added: “Man Group is a firm I have admired from afar, with an increasingly strong and diversified range of strategies. This feels like a great time to be joining the firm’s expanding Australia office. I am really looking forward to working with my new colleagues across Asia Pacific and beyond, making use of the firm’s world-class infrastructure, technology and investment teams to deliver new solutions to clients.”

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Andrew Swan

Man GLG, the discretionary investment management engine of Man Group, has launched a high conviction Asia (ex-Japan) equities strategy led by Andrew Swan, Head of Asia Equities (ex-Japan).

The long-only, style agnostic and fundamentally-driven strategy will have an active share of at least 70% and is composed of positions across all market caps, with a preference for mid-cap companies over time. The strategy will typically run sector or country weights to +/-20% versus the MSCI Asia Ex-Japan Index, with the majority of returns achieved through investing in companies the team believes are likely to see positive revisions to their earnings over a period of up to 12-18 months.

In addition to bottom-up analysis, the team will overlay various top-down macro views to determine how the strategy can be tilted to help generate alpha. The investment process will analyse the current macro environment and potential future developments, in order to understand how countries, industries or investment styles (such as growth, value, quality, volatility and momentum) will perform. The strategy will be adapted to ensure the most favourable factors are over-weighted relative to the benchmark.

Andrew joined Man GLG in August 2020 and has more than 25 years’ experience investing in Asian equities. He was previously Head of Asia & Global Emerging Market Fundamental Equities at BlackRock where he managed assets of over USD$25 billion across multiple Asian and emerging markets equity strategies. Andrew is supported by newly appointed Analysts Anand Agarwal, Sally Chan, Andrew Hill and Alethea Leung.

Andrew Swan, Head of Asia (ex-Japan) Equities at Man GLG, said: “Equity markets in the Asia region represent significant opportunities for stock picking and alpha generation. Many of the largest emerging market economies in Asia have undergone significant structural improvements over the last two decades and these, coupled with high levels of GDP growth, have provided fertile ground for companies to prosper. Despite this, they remain relatively under-researched and less efficient than developed markets, so we believe they offer ample opportunities for investors over the economic cycle.”

Teun Johnston, CEO of Man GLG, said: “As a region, Asia is attractive because it’s a market where fundamentals dictate returns, and one with high dispersion at the stock level, making it a rich environment for proven managers like Andrew. Both he and the team of analysts leading the development of this strategy at Man GLG have an established track record in the region and with clients. We believe this is a particularly exciting time to launch this strategy and are pleased to add it to Man GLG’s increasingly diverse range of global equity offerings to clients.”

Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director for Asia Pacific ex-Japan, Man Group said: “I’m really pleased to have Andrew join us in the Sydney office. He is well-known to a number of investors already across Australia, as well as in the Asia-Pacific region more broadly. At Man Group we are always looking for high-calibre portfolio managers to join the platform in order to develop and expand our range of strategies. The addition of Andrew and this high conviction Asia-focused strategy brings our clients another investment option and point of entry to the market.”

As at 30 September 2020, Man GLG had USD$27.3 billion in funds under management.

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With more than 25 years’ experience investing in Asian and emerging markets equities, Andrew will initially be responsible for managing a concentrated Long Only Asia (ex-Japan) equity strategy. He will join the firm in mid-Q3 and will be based in Sydney, Australia. Andrew will report directly to Man GLG CEO Teun Johnston.

Andrew joins Man GLG from BlackRock, where he most recently served as Head of Asia & Global Emerging Market Fundamental Equities, managing significant client assets across multiple Asian and emerging markets equity strategies and helping to develop the firm’s investment platform in Asia. Andrew joined BlackRock in Hong Kong in 2011, before which he spent 17 years at JPMorgan in various Asia Pacific equity portfolio management and research roles. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Teun Johnston, CEO of Man GLG, said: “We are very excited to welcome Andrew to the Man GLG team. We have been looking to expand our Asia offering for a number of years, but have been patient as we want to ensure that whenever we build out strategies in new areas, we do so with individuals we believe to be exceptional Portfolio Managers. Andrew is very experienced and has demonstrated real skill in managing portfolios for his clients over a number of years. We feel that he will be a good fit both within Man GLG and the broader Man Group business.”

Andrew Swan said: “I am keen to return to focusing on investing for clients and Man GLG’s dual focus on autonomy and collaboration, coupled with Man Group’s reputation for having a culture of innovation and an exceptional technology platform, made this role a really compelling opportunity for me. I look forward to working with Teun and the team to develop the new strategy and build out a new team.”

Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, at Man Group, added: “We are delighted to be building our footprint in Australia, which is a strategically important market for the firm. Andrew already has a strong reputation throughout Asia Pacific and we look forward to introducing him to our clients across the whole region.”

As at 31 December 2019, Man GLG had $31.6 billion in funds under management.

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Hersh Gandhi

Man Group, the active investment management firm, has announced the launch of a new investment strategy focused on the Australian equities market, Man Numeric’s Australia Core strategy.

The quantitative, bottom-up stock selection strategy operates a systematic and disciplined process, seeking to identify attractive Australian stocks.

Man Numeric’s Australia Core strategy applies a combination of proprietary valuation and information flow stock-selection criteria, with a range of models within these groups seeking to identify areas of potential market inefficiency. Disciplined portfolio construction and risk management will aim to maximise alpha while managing exposure to sector and stock-specific risks.

Ori Ben-Akiva, Man Numeric’s Head of International Strategies, said: “We are excited to launch the Australia Core strategy, which applies our established quantitative investment processes to the Australian equities universe, seeking to maximise alpha for clients through bottom-up, systematic stock selection.”

“We have seen successful application of this investment approach across sectors and markets globally for many years. In Australia, the limited breadth (or depth) of the universe of stocks means we’ll also be setting appropriate capacity limits to ensure the strategy performs as designed (or intended) for investors.”

Man Numeric’s Australia Core strategy will aim to outperform MSCI Australia, with attractive equities being identified from a universe of 200-300 large and mid-cap Australian stocks that satisfy minimum liquidity and capitalisation requirements.

Hersh Gandhi, Man Group’s Managing Director Asia-Pacific, said the firm is focused on delivering attractive investment opportunities for its clients.

“We’ve had a number of discussions with Australian institutional investors about applying Man Numeric’s core approach across Australian equities. The Australian market is quite concentrated, so we see significant opportunities outside the large cap stocks that can be unlocked through a quantitative, bottom up strategy like this.”

“We are pleased to launch this new strategy with seed capital from Russell Investments. Russell Investments will initially include the new Australia Core strategy as part of the manager line up in three of their Australian Equity funds,” said Mr Gandhi.

Man Numeric was founded in 1989 and became part of Man Group in 2014. Since joining Man Group, the business has grown from $14.7 billion in assets under management at 30 June 2014 to $31.9 billion as of 31 December 2017.

Together with Man AHL, Man Numeric forms part of Man Group’s diversified, global quantitative investment platform which offers clients a broad product range across alternative and long-only, trend following and technical strategies.

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Damien McIntyre

Man Group yesterday announces a strategic partnership agreement with Grant Samuel Funds Management (GSFM), positioning Man Group and GSFM to offer new investment products to retail investors in Australia and New Zealand.

GSFM will additionally become primarily responsible for retail distribution of Man Group’s flagship Man AHL Alpha (AUD) fund.

The partnership will leverage Man Group’s extensive investment management capabilities and GSFM’s substantial retail distribution network in the region. Man Group has operated a successful retail business in Australia for over two decades, while GSFM’s mission is to create alliances with high calibre investment managers, both in Australia and overseas, to offer a suite of investment strategies to the retail market.

Man Group’s overall business in the region, including its growing institutional business, will continue to be managed by the Sydney-based team, headed by Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director Asia-Pacific. The firm’s Head of Retail Distribution Australia, Sam Green, will expand his existing responsibilities and work closely with GSFM.

“Alternatives are becoming a larger, and an increasingly important, part of retail investors’ portfolios” Mr Gandhi said. “We are looking forward to introducing a broader range of our liquid alternative strategies to retail investors through this alliance with the team at GSFM.”

According to GSFM’s Chief Executive Officer, Damien McIntyre, the agreement with Man Group enhances its range of specialist funds management partnerships to six.

“Each of GSFM’s partners brings unique skills and product offerings to our market and are clearly differentiated within their respective asset classes,” Mr McIntyre said.

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In his new role, Mr Comino will focus primarily on institutional opportunities for Man Group’s long-only investment strategies.

Mr Comino has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He joins the firm from HSBC Global Asset Management, where he worked in institutional sales, and previously held roles at Merrill Lynch, HFA Asset Management and IPAC Investment Services.

Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Man Group, said: “I am delighted to welcome Chris to our institutional team in Sydney. His appointment reflects our commitment to invest in our institutional business in Australia, and his wealth of experience with institutional clients across a range of investment strategies will be a great addition to our existing team. We continue to see growing interest from institutional investors in our offering of investment strategies, and Chris will play a key role in helping us to meet that demand.”

“In particular, over the past 5 years Chris has worked closely with leading emerging markets debt portfolio manager Guillermo Ossés, who joined Man GLG at the start of this year. His detailed understanding of Guillermo’s distinctive investment process will be of great value to Australian and New Zealand institutions.”

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Sandy Rattray, CEO of Man AHL, who is in Australia this week to meet with institutional clients, said an allocation to alternatives has the potential to provide a true source of diversification for investment portfolios and help investors reduce their portfolio risk, especially during market turbulence.

“Diversification is an important factor that investors should consider when they build their portfolios, especially if concerned about increased volatility,” Mr Rattray said. “The recent market downturn has been a reminder to investors of a lesson that we learnt all too well during the global financial crisis; to protect investments during downturns, investors need to consider more than just a portfolio consisting of equities and bonds.

“Alternatives can often deliver low correlation with traditional assets, potentially providing diversification benefits and improved portfolio efficiency. And trend following strategies in particular have the capability to benefit from falling prices, which can help defend investment portfolios during market disruptions.”

Man AHL is a pioneer in the systematic trading of global markets with a 25 year track record. Man AHL aims to identify and exploit market trends and other inefficiencies using heavily researched systematic trading models, with the focus on delivering a range of absolute return, long-only and momentum-based quantitative products.

Mr Rattray said that since the global financial crisis, investors’ increased interest in alternative investments has encouraged the development of new models as well as applying models to new markets.

“The slow recovery since the global financial crisis in 2007 has heightened interest amongst investors for attractive ways of earning money in market downturns,” Mr Rattray said.  “Man AHL continues to invest in research and technology to create new investment models to meet investors’ varied risk tolerance and investment goals.”

To this end, Man Group has partnered with Oxford University to set up the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance with the aim to create a stimulating environment of research and innovation. The laboratory, headed by Man AHL’s Chief Scientist Dr Anthony Ledford, has made significant contributions to Man AHL’s commercial investment activities and Man Group’s researchers benefit from discussions with renowned academics that would be unavailable to them in a purely commercial environment.

Changing investor perceptions

Hersh Gandhi, Managing Director, Asia-Pacific at Man Group said that investors’, especially institutional investors’, perception toward quantitative investing has changed over recent years.

“When investors previously talked about quantitative investing, they often referred to it as ‘black box’ investing and didn’t really understand what it was or how it worked,” Mr Gandhi said. “However quantitative investing is actually very transparent. It is computer-based and takes much of the emotion out of investment decisions.”

“Beyond diversification benefits, investors are also realising the benefits of alternatives to capitalise on any market opportunity to improve performance potential and consistency,” Mr Gandhi concluded.

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