Aussie retail fund house aims at Asian institutional investor market

First State Investments' regional business has gone through a series of re-brandings, personnel defections and declining fund NAVs in the wake of the Nasdaq bubble burst. The Australian fund manager's Singapore operations have stabilized and returned to profitability, thanks in part to the leadership of Lindsay Mann, who joined as CEO in Singapore during early 2001 from AXA Investment Managers in Hong Kong. Now Mann is in the process of building a new institutional business for the restored firm.