Two Americans running Nikko Asset Management are the first foreigners to run a major asset firm, according to the June issue of Bloomberg Markets. Timothy McCarthy and Bill Wilder are turning around a once struggling firm, in hopes to get a piece of the more than $13 trillion in assets accumulated by Japanese households.
In the article “Nikko’s Gaijin and the Quest for Japan’s $13 Trillion,” Senior Writer Edward Robinson reports that moving Nikko into the modern world of asset management won’t be easy. Japanese investors have a longstanding distrust of the stock market, and money manager compensation has traditionally been based on seniority and not performance. The June edition of Bloomberg Markets will hit newsstands in mid-May.