Fiera Capital Names John Cappetta as Head of Asia Excluding Japan and Korea

Fiera Capital has bolstered its Asia Pacific leadership with the appointment of John Cappetta as managing director and head of Asia excluding Japan and Korea, as the Montreal-based fund manager continues to strengthen its private alternatives offering in the region.

Based in Singapore, Cappetta will report to Rob Petty, executive director and chief executive of Fiera Capital Asia, with Cappetta’s new role effective as of 1 October.

Toronto-listed Fiera, which managed over $116.1 billion in global assets as of 30 June, pointed to private alternatives as being a principal focus for its Asian business, with unleveraged, income-generating private credit serving as its cornerstone product, including the fund manager’s Australia and New Zealand real estate debt strategy.

“Investors in Asia are increasingly seeking new opportunities in alternative assets, such as private credit, real assets, and private equity,” Cappetta said in a release on Tuesday. “Fiera Capital’s robust presence across both private and public markets provides us with the ability to offer tailored solutions to meet client needs…as demand for diversified investments, particularly in alternatives and sustainable investing, continues to grow in the region, Fiera Capital is well-positioned to meet these evolving needs.”

34-Year Veteran

Cappetta has been based in Singapore since 2007, where the executive most recently served as head of private banking and Asia advisor to South Africa-based investment manager Ninety One. Prior to Ninety One, Cappetta worked as a managing director senior advisor at Julius Baer as well as head of Asia mutual fund sales at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The executive’s 34 year career also includes stints at Van Hedge Funds, Safra Asset Management, and Merrill Lynch based in the US, Australia, and Singapore.

“John has developed an unmatched understanding of distribution across Asia, with significant expertise in Singapore where he has worked since 2007,” said Petty. “The region’s distinct appetite and preference for highly customisable investment solutions requires a personal connection to core markets, and as we expand our offer to investors in Asia at all tiers it will be this nuanced appreciation for what motivates investment decision-making that sets apart our public and private market strategies and active management approach.”

The appointment of Cappetta comes six months after Fiera named CJ Morrell as head of Japan to increase the fund manager’s strategic focus on the Japanese market during a period of comprehensive economic reform in the country.

Asia Pacific Buildout

Fiera pointed to Cappetta’s hiring as supporting the growth of Fiera’s decentralised distribution model, with the investment manager seeking to service its institutional, wholesale and financial intermediary clients in Asia directly on the back of growing demand for specialist and highly customisable public and private market strategies in the region.

Fiera’s real estate debt strategies, which cover Australia and New Zealand, Europe, Canada, and the US, form part of the fund manager’s suite of alternative investment products, which also includes direct real estate, infrastructure, agriculture and timber, as well as public equities strategies.

In addition to Singapore, Fiera’s regional footprint includes offices in Hong Kong and Chongqing.

In 2018, Fiera acquired Asia-focused private credit and special situations investment firm Clearwater Capital Partners, which saw Hong Kong-based Clearwater’s $1.4 billion of assets under management absorbed into Fiera’s private alternative investments division.

Fiera Real Estate – the fund manager’s direct real estate investment unit – managed $7.4 billion of assets as of 30 June, all of which are located in North America and Europe. In 2021, a joint venture of Fiera Real Estate and Saudi asset manager SEDCO Capital sold a data centre in southeast England to Singapore’s Keppel DC REIT.