The Isle of Man-based offshore finance group has promoted Douglas Grant to group chief executive.

He has been at the firm since 2008 when he started working as group finance director, and will retain his responsibilities as managing director of Manx Financial Group subsidiary Conister Bank.

Grant succeeds Denham Eke, who will become executive vice chairman of the group and remain a non-executive director of the firm’s principal subsidiaries, Conister Bank, IFA firm Edgewater Associates and Manx FX.

James Seed has been promoted to executive director of the group and group finance director, succeeding Grant, and remains finance director of the bank.

Gregory Jones has been named as independent non-executive director of the group and bank, and a member of the group audit, risk and compliance committee.

John Spellman, non-executive director of the group and the bank, has taken on a similar role at Edgewater, replacing Robert Frize.

Haseeb Qureshi has also been promoted to managing director of the bank, after serving as chief operating officer from 2017 and as executive director since 2019. He joined the firm in 2016 from KPMG.

Sun Life

The international insurance provider has hired Luc Nhon Ly as chief executive of Sun Life Vietnam.

He will succeed Larry Madge, who is set to return to the firm’s corporate offices in Toronto.

Nhon Ly joins from AIA, where he held a similar position for the company’s Myanmar arm.

Barclays Private Bank

The private bank has strengthened its Asia presence with three senior hires.

Ken Sze has been promoted to head of investments for Asia, in Singapore. He has relocated from London, where he served as global head of the funds and ETF business at Barclays Private Bank Global Investments for the past three years.

Adrian Khoo has become head of strategic client coverage in Singapore. He joins from Julius Baer & Co in the Lion City. where he was a senior relationship manager for south east Asia.

Jaime Huang has been hired as a private banker in Singapore to focus on developing and growing the business in the region.

Sanne

The global provider of alternative asset and corporate business services has named Alan Keet as head of Sanne South Africa, based in Cape Town.

He was chief executive of Akwa Business and Consulting Solutions since April 2017.

KMPG

Shelley Doorey-Williams and Dean Brown have joined KPMG’s wealth and asset management practice as associate partner and partner, respectively.

Doorey-Williams was previously head of wealth planning for UK and Jersey at UBS, while Brown served as a partner at EY’s wealth and asset management technology division.

PraxisIFM

The global financial services business has appointed Carsten Cramer and Daniel Reynolds as managing directors.

Cramer will head up the Netherlands offices, replacing Reynolds who will lead the firm’s Jersey office.

Reynolds succeeds Richard Kearsey, who will retire at the end of November after 21 years at the group.

Kingsley Napley

Matt Spencer has joined the law firm as a partner to help set up the newly formed tax practice.

He was previously at DAC Beachcroft, where he worked for the last nine years.

Pimfa

Geoff Towers has taken on a non- executive directorship at the trade body.

He brings over 35 years’ experience in the wealth management and investment services industry, including leadership roles at Citibank, Barclays Wealth, Legal & General and Friends Life.

Most recently he was chief executive of BNY Mellon’s Pershing  for almost six years until June 2021.

Cura

UK-based protection advice firm Cura named Lee Robertson as a non-executive director.

He is currently the chief executive and founder of financial services private social network Octo Members.

Ho Lee Yen has been named chief executive of its insurance operations in Singapore.

She joins HSBC from AIA Singapore, where she was chief distribution officer.

The appointment is subject to regulatory approvals.

HSBC has previously agreed to fully acquire Axa Singapore. Following deal completion, the bank wants to merge the operations of HSBC Insurance (Singapore) and Axa Singapore.

Brooks Macdonald International

The wealth manager has promoted Lindsay Bateman to the role of head of business development.

Bateman, who is based in Jersey and joined the firm in 2014, has previously overseen the business development strategy in Africa, with a particular focus on southern and eastern Africa.

In his new role, he will assume added responsibility for new and existing business across the firm’s primary target markets including Europe and the Middle East as well as Africa.

Investec Wealth & Investment

The UK wealth manager has bolstered its intermediary sales team.

Simon Taylor joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments, where he was a global strategic client director for the Americas.

He will be based in Investec’s London office, focusing on strategic partnerships with national and networked advisory businesses.

Louise Slade has more than 20 years of experience in financial services and joins from HSBC Asset Management, where she was a director for the Midlands and south west regions. She will be based in Investec’s Birmingham office.

Ed Walker joins as a business development director from Quilter Cheviot.

In their roles, Slade and Walker will focus on growing the use of Investec’s MPS offering, as well as working with IFAs to promote Investec’s discretionary services in the Midlands and south west regions respectively.

Hurst Point Group

John White has taken up the role of managing director of the firm’s financial planning division.

The division is currently comprised of the financial advice businesses acquired as part of the acquisitions of Harwood Wealth Management Group and Argentis Financial Planning.

White was most recently managing director of Sanlam’s UK wealth business.

As announced at the time of the Harwood acquisition, Neil Dunkley, the current managing director of the financial planning division, will transition to a role as a non-executive director of the group’s holding company Hurst Point Topco Limited.

StratEx Group UK

The financial services firm has hired Neil Jones as head of wealth planning.

Jones was previously at Canada Life UK for over 11 years, where he was most recently market development manager.

Lowes Financial Management

The IFA firm has appointed Douglas Montgomerie as business development specialist.

Montgomerie joins the IFA firm from Brewin Dolphin, where he worked in investment management for more than three years.

Sanne

The financial services provider has appointed Tervinder Chal as head of Singapore.

Previously, Chal spent around nine years with Vastardis Capital Services and Alter Domus in Singapore, where he worked to build the two firms from scratch.

He takes over from David Fowler, who recently relocated to Sanne’s London office, where he started as global head of private equity.

HSBC Asset Management

The asset manager has created a direct real estate team as part of its strategy to build out its alternatives business.

Based in Singapore, the team will be led by Victoria Sharpe, managing principal and head of real estate, Asia Pacific, who joined HSBC AM on 1 September.

She joins from DWS, where she was responsible for building and leading its Asia Pacific real estate business since 2016.

Lionel Low and James Bartlett join as managing principals, reporting to Sharpe.

Low joins from Ascendas Asia Real Estate Fund Management and Bartlett joins from DWS.

Invesco

The investment firm has appointed Maximilian Kufer to the role of head of ESG – private markets.

Prior to joining Invesco, Kufer was global sustainability manager at Axa Investment Managers.

Marlborough Group

Small- and mid-cap specialist Tom Livesey has been appointed as an equity analyst on the Marlborough European Multi-Cap Fund.

Livesey was formerly with Palm Harbour Capital.

His arrival comes as deputy manager Will Searle leaves to take up a new role elsewhere.

Cinven offered to buy the company at 875p ($12.4, €10.1) per share. This is the fifth M&A bid Sanne has received from Cinven after it rejected the four submitted beforehand.

The fund administrator’s board has now asked the takeover panel to extend the deadline by which Cinven must make a firm offer following talks.

There is no certainty, however, that the private equity group will ultimately make a concrete offer. Sanne said in a stock exchange filing that this “must now be made by not later than 5.00pm on 9 July 2021. This deadline can be extended by the board of Sanne, with the consent of the takeover panel”.

Following the announcement, Sanne shares rose 10.9% in early trading, and were up 11.4% at the time of publication.

‘Willing’

Nicholas Hyett, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Energy and persistence conquer all things, at least according to Benjamin Franklin, and Cinven has been leaning heavily on the latter of the two in its attempt to snap up Sanne Group.

“The private equity giant’s fifth offer has finally drawn the Sanne board to the negotiating table.

“Having firmly rejected the previous four offers, the move suggests the Sanne board are now at least willing to consider a sale. Whether Cinven will need to put a cherry on top of their 875p a share offer to get the board to bite remains to be seen.”

The UK financial advisory network has made several senior promotions.

Current wealth and platform director Mike Morrow will take on the role of chief commercial officer, effective from the end of January.

Claire Lemon, director of learning and acquisition, will become wealth director and join the executive board as a result.

Pat McKenna, current sales director at Openwork’s specialist protection advice business Owl Financial, is retiring in March and Liam Richards, head of sales, will take over.

Phoenix Group

Colin Williams has been named managing director for pensions and savings at Phoenix Group.

He joins from Aviva, where he held a similar role for the workplace savings and retirement business as well as its financial advice arm.

Brown Shipley

The wealth management firm hired Philipp Larmaltchouk as head of financial intermediaries market for the UK to expand its offering.

He will be tasked with creating a financial intermediaries market desk and building a team to serve external asset managers.

Larmaltchouk was previously at Julius Baer International, where he served as director.

Nomura

The Asian global investment bank recruited more than 20 private bankers and investment advisers to bolster its international wealth management business.

This is part of the firm’s plans to expand capabilities to serve high net worth clients.

The hires are based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Tilney Smith & Williamson

Bill McNabb joined the UK wealth manager as non-executive director.

He was chairman and chief executive of The Vanguard Group until he retired in 2018.

McNabb currently holds several non-executive directorships including at IBM, Unitedhealth Group and Axiom.

Sanne

The alternative asset provider has promoted global head of client growth Peter Nagle to chief commercial officer.

He will be responsible for client service delivery in all jurisdictions Sanne is present and for the firm’s commercial development.

Nagle joined the company in 2018 to lead the Mauritius business.

Artemis

Iain MacPherson will join the investment firm in March 2021 as sales director.

He is currently at Comgest, where he has been responsible for intermediary sales in London, Dublin and the Channel Islands.

JM Finn

The wealth management business recruited Bill Tibbits as a senior investment manager in its Winchester office.

The hire is subject to contractual obligations, JM Finn said.

He joins from Investec Wealth and Investment, where he worked as a senior investment director.

Curtis Banks

The Sipp provider has named Jill Lucas as non-executive director, effective immediately.

She will also take on the role of chair of Dunstan Thomas, the group’s fintech business acquired in August 2020.

She currently holds another non-executive directorship at National Savings and Investments.

Rob Regan, the chief executive of platform Ascentric, will leave the business at the end of the year.

Ascentric was acquired by M&G in May 2020 from Royal London

Regan has been at the helm of the company for three years.

David Montgomery, managing director of M&G Wealth Management, will lead Ascentric, with the help of Richard Denning who becomes interim chief executive after joining the business earlier this year.

A permanent chief executive will be named in due course, M&G said.

Brewin Dolphin

The discretionary wealth management firm has hired Toby Strauss as chairman and non-executive director, effective from 5 February 2021.

Strauss is currently a non-executive director at Legal & General and chairman at Pacific Life Re.

He will replace Simon Miller, who currently holds the two positions.

Miller joined Brewin’s board in 2005, was then promoted to senior non-executive director and deputy chairman in 2012, and has held his current roles since 2013.

Globaleye

Andrew Fong has joined the firm as a wealth manager in Singapore.

He was previously an associate partner at St James’s Place Wealth Management Asia for over three years.

Credit Agricole & Indosuez Wealth Management

The two firms have joined forces to create a private investment banking division to support ultra-high net worth individuals and families worldwide.

As a result, Silvia Calvello becomes global head of private investment banking.

She was a senior banker for large French clients and coverage global head of the consumer goods, retail and business services sector at Credit Agricole.

HSBC Global Asset Management

Stuart Kirk joins the asset management firm as head of research and insight.

He will lead the newly created research and insights team to provide the firm’s retail and institutional clients with investment content and promote its research and analysis.

Kirk used to run the Research Institute at DWS.

Ailo

The professional body has made a few changes to its board.

Canada Life International Assurance’s John McNamara will become deputy chairman.

Inge de Wolf from Swiss Life was re-elected as a members’ representative and Dara Hurley takes on a similar position, after serving as deputy chair and interim chair.

CISI

Sally Plant has become head of financial planning at the professional body.

She currently works at Robur Wealth Management, a St James’s Place partner practice, where she covers paraplanning and business development.

Plant used to work for the CISI between 2005 and 2016, with her latest role being head of education development.

Sanne

The provider of alternative assets and corporate business services hired Jan Barre as director of business development in Luxembourg.

He will be responsible for building new relationships as well as growing Sanne’s business.

Barre was most recently at International Fund Services and Asset Management in Luxembourg where he specialised in fund services platforms.

Saranac Partners

Martin Gilbert, the co-founder and former chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has become a non-executive director at the firm.

He is currently the chairman of digital bank Revolut and a senior independent non-executive director at Glencore, as well as chairman of Toscafund.

Kreston Reeves

The financial advisory firm has appointed Simon Levin as legal services director, expanding its private client team in the London office.

He joins from UK law firm Hugh James, where he worked as a partner.