By Yuma Ikeshita

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

Stefanie Drews, president and CEO of Amova Asset Management Co., said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun that the company established a new department in August to better support individual investors in Japan in managing their assets. The company, part of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc., recently changed its name from Nikko Asset Management. The following is excerpted from the interview. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: What is your aim in changing the company's name?

Stefanie Drews: It involved 175 of our employees, globally, and took over one year. This team spent all their time trying to come up with a name that truly embodied us, and created a composite word. The name incorporates "AM" from "Asset Management," "Movement," and "ova," symbolizing innovation.

It's easy to stay where you are. But our firm has a history of over 65 years, and we felt that this was a moment where people would recognize us for who we are, not just the name. We actually used the opportunity to also redefine our mission, principles and our values that guide our firm.

Yomiuri: What are your strengths compared to domestic competitors?

Drews: We are headquartered in Tokyo, but half of our fund managers are outside of Japan. Our global offices are fully integrated with headquarters and with each other. We have a matrix reporting system and use video conferencing with interpretation, so our teams can collaborate seamlessly regardless of location.

We're probably extremely unique, because we have most of our asset management capabilities in-house (not outsourced) as active managers. In Edinburgh, we have a team managing global equity. In London, we have a team managing global bonds. We have investment teams at our offices in New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. In Japan, we have equity and quants. Even though every team has its own investment process, they all come together through our Global Investment Strategy Committee, which means that the Japan equity managers are getting insight from the global equity managers and vice versa. It's quite different from a typical Japanese company that tends to be a little bit more siloed.

Yomiuri: What financial products are you focusing on for domestic individual investors in Japan?

Drews: There are thousands of products available for Japan's NISA (Nippon Individual Savings Account) scheme. We made over 80% of our Japan retail funds NISA-compatible even before NISA started. We focus on the areas that other companies may not cover. We also offer passive products but with unique approaches. On the active side, we use our in-house fund management capability, such as global equity. We are always developing new products for this channel.

Yomiuri: You also offer many financial products developed with overseas partners, such as ARK Investment Management LLC, founded by Cathie Wood, the "queen of high-tech stocks."

Drews: Partnerships are essential. They serve as bridges that connect global and local needs, enabling us to deliver the products our clients are looking for. We have six strategic partners: ARK in the United States, Rongtong Fund Management in China, AHAM Asset Management in Malaysia, Yarra Capital Management in Australia, Osmosis (Holdings) in London and Tikehau Capital in France. We have recently launched a joint venture with Tikehau in Singapore and applied for regulatory approval to offer Asian private asset products.

Yomiuri: Will the number of partners increase going forward?

Drews: Yes, for sure. In addition to private assets (Tikehau) and sustainable investing (Osmosis), we're looking for partnerships in ETFs (exchange traded funds). We are huge in ETFs. We are one of the big players here in Japan. But we're looking for further partnerships in Asia, Europe and the United States both for even more enhanced distribution and for investment capabilities we don't have. We're very ambitious, and there will be more coming.

Yomiuri: Japan is also seeing growing interest in investing in private assets.

Drews: I think Japan is probably the most fascinating place for private assets globally, because it's still at a relatively early stage. What we're seeing right now is a shift away from U.S. private assets to more diversification like European, Asian and other regions' private assets. But the understanding of the role of private assets in an investment portfolio is still shaping itself. My current plan is, of course, to provide private assets for institutional investors. But I would also like to make these products available to retail investors, not just high net worth individuals.

We actually do a lot of investor education. We are setting up a new department in Tokyo, where we are trying to get even closer to the Japanese individual investors by providing information, through a better understanding of what would empower them to make the right decisions. We are very, very focused on doing it also in a very direct way. The person heading the new department just came back from our office in New York, and has seen excellent B2C engagement models globally, and wants to bring some of that know-how back. An important part of our expansion is to make sure that we always are the forefront of what Japan retail investors need.

Yomiuri: What details can you offer about this new department? For example, you mentioned being one of the big players in ETFs in Japan. What about retail investors?

Drews: One of the things that I think is really interesting is how small the ETF market is in Japan's retail space. But if you look at almost any other market, the typical retail investor has a significant holding in ETFs, which are often very low cost. ETFs bring an enormous amount of very interesting benefits and actually allow an individual to create their own portfolio. We would love to be one of the leaders in retail ETF investing in Japan.

We will start by building a community of supporters and developing a platform for direct communication with investors. We will focus on creating new, effective ways to engage directly with investors.

Yomiuri: What support do overseas personnel need so that Japanese companies can make full use of them?

Drews: For me, it was the ecosystem, which means language capability and digitalization. And if you have those two, anybody can work and thrive. Some of our employees speak only Japanese, but we provide full interpretation and remote work options, so location and language are not barriers. We are fully focused on output. And if you truly want to bring foreigners to Japan, create an HR system that isn't based on age and hierarchy.

Yomiuri: Many companies struggle with building effective systems for evaluating personnel.

Drews: Any firm in the world always struggles to properly evaluate. We set KPIs (key performance indicators), and we review them every six months. So we are constantly adjusting. We conduct 360-degree evaluations at the end of the year, and we do it through an external party, so that it's extremely objective.

We provide ongoing training. It's really not so hard to know who's performing and who's not. I think if it's a very rigid system that has very few people evaluating you, it is hard. We have to invest a lot, which we do, because human capital is our most important asset.

Yomiuri: Is the Japanese market attractive for foreigners to work in?

Drews: I think Japan is a very interesting market. And I think the scale of it is unique. This market has more liquid assets than any other in the world, including the United States. And then you have the Corporate Governance Code, the Stewardship Code, the Tokyo Stock Exchange rule change, all of it coming together, and then NISA, and all of that created a tipping point.

The whole idea of making Tokyo an international financial center is extraordinarily smart, because the upside is so huge. If you're in the green industry, I think the technology that Japan has is unbelievable. If you're in the robotics industry or the medical industry, it's unbelievable. And if you're in the finance industry, this is the moment. This is literally the moment to be in Japan.

----

This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

YDN-M0000142638-1

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 10, 2025 23:06 ET (03:06 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 The Yomiuri Shimbun