Hong Kong-based asset manager Enhanced Investment Products has appointed David Lau as head of finance, administration and operations as it moves it
Hong Kong-based asset manager Enhanced Investment Products has appointed David Lau as head of finance, administration and operations as it moves its office to the heart of the territory’s Central business district.
Lau, who previously worked in equities at Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and HSBC, says: “I am delighted to have joined EIP at this stage in the firm’s advancement. There are a number of exciting developments in the pipeline. I have always wanted to work on the buy side – I have undergone a steep learning curve but we are a great team and I feel settled in my new role.”
On the operations side of the business, Lau has already overseen the implementation by the firm of the Tora trading application, a multi-product and multi-broker system offering direct market access to buy and sell in Asia. The system is linked to more than Asian 75 brokers with more than 400 connection points to trade equities, futures, single stock options, convertible bonds, index options and spreads.
The Imagine trading system, which has also been installed recently at Enhanced Investment Products, is a comprehensive risk and portfolio management system that helps the firm to manage risk, achieve transparency and gain operational efficiencies.
“The new software we have introduced will help streamline our operations,” says chief executive Toby Bland. “We are pleased to welcome David to the company and I am sure he will be a great asset and an intrinsic part of our firm’s development.”
The EIP Overlay Fund is an Asia ex-Japan market neutral fund that employs a variety of equity and derivative strategies. It has an agreement with the Enhanced Index Funds PCC, which comprises index funds in Taiwan, China, India, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, to borrow the latter’s securities to take advantage of anomalies, in exchange for a 25 per cent share of the Overlay Fund’s positive performance.
Enhanced Investment Products says the Overlay Fund is the first hedge fund in Asia to adopt this strategy of creating long positions in order to facilitate a short position, giving it an advantage in trading emerging Asian stock markets. The EIP Overlay Fund is up 14.53 per cent so far this year and has delivered an annualised average return of 10.95 per cent since May 2002.
