Mercer has announced three senior appointments to its Asia wealth team. They are Alvin Tay, chief portfolio adviser in Asia; Anubhuti Gupta, principal, wealth, Singapore; and Henry Ching, head of private markets, Asia-Pacific.

From left:  Alvin Tay, Anubhuti Gupta, and Henry Ching.

In his newly created role, Tay is responsible for strengthening Mercer’s Asia wealth business by advising clients on their portfolios, with a focus on those with significant allocations to alternatives. He has 15 years of experience dealing with institutional investments and was most recently the head of investment risk at The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Gupta will be leading and expanding key client relationships in Singapore as well as other Southeast Asia markets like Thailand and Malaysia. With 17 years of asset management experience, Gupta was most recently the head of AXA-IM Singapore and head of investment for APAC at Rosenberg Equities, AXA-IM's equity quant business.

Ching, previously Mercer’s head of Asia real estate, has been appointed to an expanded role as head of private markets, Asia-Pacific, where he will oversee research in private markets investment strategies and assist clients with manager selection across private markets investments in the region. He has been with the firm for 11 years.

The new appointments come amid growing business and investor interest in private markets. “The demand from asset owners for sophisticated advisory and solutions services has continued to grow as investment markets face more volatility and are becoming more complex, especially in Asia," the US asset manager says. "This has been accompanied by increased interest in private markets driven by the inflationary environment and the chase for yield. It is critical for an advisory and solutions partner not just to be able to address the breadth of issues its clients face, but also to have the depth in specialized areas like private markets to provide expert guidance.”