AXA Group's investment branch has made a Hong Kong-based appointment to enhance its coverage of Asia's sovereign wealth funds and central banks.

AXA Investment Managers has hired Tom Clapham as head of sovereign wealth funds and central banks in Asia.

Clapham joins the Hong Kong team from Macquarie Securities Group where he was institutional sales director. In the newly-created role, he will report to Terence Lam, AXA IM's head of sales and marketing in Asia, and Pierre De Bonneville, head of sovereign and supranational entities.

He has more than 15 years’ industry experience in Asia having previously served as head of transition management and global portfolio trading at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong and as investment consultant for Mercer and Towers Perrin in Sydney, London and Singapore.

“He brings with him in-depth experience in serving SWFs and central banks, which are very sophisticated investors with unique and challenging needs. It is our aim to service them well by providing them with access to our diverse investment capabilities across a spectrum of asset classes and investment strategies,” said Lam.

AXA IM employs over 2,300 people across 28 offices in 21 countries. As of the end of June, it had €694 billion ($782 billion) in assets under management.