Aberdeen Asset Management will be opening an office in Tokyo on 4 September with a licence to provide advisory services. Part of the Japan e...

Aberdeen Asset Management will be opening an office in Tokyo on 4 September with a licence to provide advisory services. Part of the Japan equity fund management team, presently based in Singapore, will transfer to the new office. The office will be headed by Pascal Masse who has been a Japan equity manager with Aberdeen Asia since 2000. He will be assisted by three Japanese nationals who have been with him in Singapore. Head of desk, Graeme Sinclair, will remain in Singapore to oversee portfolio construction and management. “We’ve always wanted to be in Tokyo because we recognise Japan’s global importance. But our approach is very much ‘Do it properly or not at all’. Now we have the resources, including the staff to provide the consistency of investment approach, we’re ready,” said Hugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia and group head of equities. Aberdeen’s Asian business now has funds under management of $27 billion, including $1.8 billion in Japan equities. The company has had more international reach following the purchase of Deutsche Asset Management’s UK and Philadelphia fund management interests last year.