Senior analyst Matthew Davison and quantitative analyst Sam Li have been given new roles as Portfolio Managers.

Reece Birtles, Chief Investment Officer, Martin Currie said: “The Martin Currie team are known for their focus on continuous development and tailored investment options for clients. Our strong 18-strong member investment team has an average tenure of 12 years, and average industry experience of 20 years across a variety of industry backgrounds.

“These promotions tie in with our recently launched Martin Currie Active Insights strategy and both Matthew and Sam bring fundamental and systematic style neutral portfolio construction skills. Both of them have a unique mindset to extract the best fundamental insights from the broader team, deliver alpha, and communicate their edge to clients, consultants and broader investor group.”

Since joining Martin Currie in 2013, Davison has demonstrated fundamental research insight with his financials coverage, portfolio construction, process development involvement and strong communication skills with clients.

“With his understanding of the funds management industry through his financials research coverage, and keen interest in true fundamental insights, Matthew is perfectly placed to evolve the Active Insights strategy,” added Birtles.

In the 18 months since joining Martin Currie in 2021, Li has also made a tremendous contribution to the development of the Active Insights strategy, said Birtles.

Li’s academic background and work experience provides him with unique expertise to continue to evolve the investment process, he said.

Prior to joining Martin Currie Davison worked at Merrill Lynch for nine years as lead banking analyst. He has also worked at Citigroup Smith Barney for two years as an equity research analyst in the financials team and at National Australia Bank for three and half years in its M&A division, where he was involved in a number of large transactions.

Li worked as a Quantitative Developer at Frontier Advisors and was responsible for delivering quantitative solutions externally and internally, before joining Martin Currie in January 2021. Li has also worked for NAB as a quantitative analyst developing statistical models.

Martin Currie currently manages over A$31 billion in assets under management, and A$8 billion in Australian equities (as of 30 June 2022).

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James Douglas, with over 9 years of experience within the financial services industry, joins Martin Currie as an Investment Client Portfolio Manager. Based in Melbourne, Douglas will be embedded within the investment team, to promote Martin Currie’s core suite of Australian and Global investment capabilities to the institutional marketplace in Australia.

Julia Wang joins as a Research Analyst for large cap equities. With over three years of experience as an investment analyst, she will be responsible for research across the Consumer and Financial sectors.

Both Douglas and Wang come to Martin Currie from Franklin Templeton’s Balanced Equity Management (BEM). At BEM, Douglas was responsible for trading and portfolio management. He has also worked at JANA Investment Advisers. Prior to BEM, Wang was at KPMG.

Martin Currie has also appointed Bowei (Sam) Li as a Quantitative Analyst. Sam had joined Martin Currie Australia in January 2021 and has now joined the team permanently in a newly created role to bolster the quantitative resources of the investment team. Sam was previously a Quantitative Developer at Frontier Advisors.

Kimon Kouryialas, Co-Head of Global Distribution, Martin Currie notes: “We have an enormous opportunity to build our business in Australia and across Asia and to establish ourselves as a leading active equity specialist. The addition of James to our team reflects our strong alignment with investment-led solutions and client service. We are delighted to have him on board.

“Today we are very pleased to have a strong team of 20 professionals in Australia and the Australian equity assets under management have grown from A$3 to A$10 billion in just over a decade,” says Kouryialas.

Reece Birtles, Chief Investment Officer for MCA adds: “As active managers we are constantly looking to attract the highest calibre of research talent to the firm. We are delighted to have Julia at Martin Currie where her skills will bring significant value to our client base.

“Sam’s appointment provides us with further support and resources in our quantitative efforts and he will be working closely with Matt Lambert and Naomi Bant using quantitative research methodologies to design, test and maintain disciplined investment processes.”

Birtles adds: “The addition of these experienced professionals demonstrates Martin Currie’s focus on continuing to provide market leading performance and client solutions that deliver benefits such as active ownership and active after-tax management.”

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