Martin Currie has now received the necessary approvals to complete the purchase of the business assets and investment management team of PK Investment Management, the London based long/short Japan Equity boutique.
Led by Paul Kirkby, the team now includes Martin Currie incumbent manager, Claire Marwick. Overall assets under management for the enlarged team are USD425 million.
Kirkby has also been appointed as lead manager of the Legg Mason Japan Absolute Alpha Fund the Luxembourg domiciled UCITS fund.
Andy Sowerby, Head of Sales and Marketing at Martin Currie, says: “This is an exciting milestone in the development of our Japanese long/short capability. By capitalising on the combined strength of our collective resources we can further establish ourselves as a leading manager in this specialist area. Paul has over 30 years’ experience in managing Japanese equities and is backed by a proven team who together have combined experience of the Japanese market in excess of 97 years.”
Kirkby says: “We are delighted to be joining Martin Currie at this particularly interesting time. Japan has now recorded four consecutive years of gains and it will be interesting to see if this trend can be continued in 2016. Whilst the stock market has doubled from the 2012 lows, profits have grown at the same pace and thus valuations are not as stretched as might be expected. With supportive central bank and government policies in place, allied to improving corporate governance helping drive further balance sheet efficiency, we see a continued positive backdrop for investors, provided that global economic conditions do not deteriorate meaningfully in the year ahead.”
