Pictet, the Swiss fund management firm, has expanded its investment and sales team in Asia, including its very first investment staff based in Hong Kong. 

The Hong Kong team comprises three equity managers and three equity traders, who will focus on China A-shares and manage the portfolio for the firm's qualified foreign institutional investor quota. Pictet received its QFII license in 2006. 

Pauline Dan will head the team, which will be part of a 20-person global emerging markets equities unit. Dan joined the company in August 2012 from Samsung Investment Trust Management, where she was head of Greater China equities. Before that, she worked for Manulife Asset Management. 

Pictet did not reveal the names of the other newly appointed staff, although it revealed that some would be transferred from its Europe offices. The company also said it is building its EM corporate bonds team with new appointments, most of whom will be based in its Singapore office. Pictet presently has a six-strong EM debt team in the city-state managing some US$10 billion out of the US$22 billion its handles globally.

The company has been building its Hong Kong presence through two distribution partnerships made over the past year. One is with AIA, the insurance firm, and the other is with Hang Seng Bank, one of the largest banks in Hong Kong.