GIC hires J.P. Morgan's Khullar as a fund manager
Government of Singapore Investment Corp. (GIC) has hired Arjun Khullar from J.P. Morgan as a fund manager. Khullar has spent 16 years at the US investment bank, most recently as head of international listings in London. Prior to that, he was co-head of Asia equity capital markets, based in Singapore.
It has been reported that Khullar left J.P. Morgan two months ago and will start at GIC in about one month. He will once again be working out of Singapore.
Khullar is expected to focus on GIC's public equities investments, which is headed by Lim Chow Kiat, who became president of GIC Asset Management on July 1. This was part of a wider reshuffle that also saw Tay Lim Hock promoted from deputy president to president of GIC Special Investments, which is responsible for the fund's private equity and infrastructure business.
The rearrangements, which in general have seen younger people take up senior roles, came one month after Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong became chairman of GIC, taking over from his father, Lee Kuan Yew, who moved to a senior advisor position.
Temasek Holdings, Singapore's second-largest sovereign wealth fund after GIC, has been going through a similar transition, widely believed to be linked to the potential departure of CEO Ho Ching, who has been married to Lee Hsien Loong since 1985.
Temasek last week poached Tan Chong Lee from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofAML) who is expected to serve as senior managing director and CIO-designate. Charles Ong, a senior managing director at the fund, recently joined his brother Richard Ong's $2.3 billion private equity firm RRJ Capital as an advisor. In August, another senior managing director, Jimmy Phoon, last month moved to Seatown Holdings, a Temasek-owned absolute-return fund.
Last year Temasek brought on board Greg Curl, formerly an executive at Bank of America and a director at China Construction Bank, to oversee financial services operations. It appointed Hsieh Fu Hua, former CEO of the Singapore Stock Exchange, to an advisory role in February 2010 and promoted him to president three months later. Leading lawyer Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara has also been hired as head of portfolio management.
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