British fund management house Friends Ivory and Sime is pulling out of a joint venture with Dao Heng Fund Management and shutting its Hong Kong office.
The venture, Friends Ivory and Sime Asia, would be wound up by the end of the year, chief executive Joseph Silva said.
The 13 employees in the venture, including fund managers and support staff, would lose their jobs but some would be offered positions at Dao Heng Fund Management, Mr Silva said.
'It's an amiable arrangement. The staff are overall reasonably happy about it,' said Mr Silva, who is staying on to oversee the wind-up process but will not be joining Dao Heng.
The 50:50 venture was set up in March 2000 to handle Asian investments for Friends.
In July, Friends completed the acquisition of the fund management arm of British insurer Royal & Sun Alliance, doubling its assets under management to GBP66 billion (about HK$803.37 billion) in the process.
