FTSE Xinhua appoints new MD

Norman Yen, former managing director of financial software provider Sungard, has joined FTSE Xinhua Index (FXI). He replaces Zhu Shan, the companyÆs founding managing director, who has been appointed chief operating officer at a division of financial media and data provider Xinhua Finance.

Before joining Sungard Yen was a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopersÆ Asian financial consulting practice covering the finance, banking, insurance and investment sectors. He will be responsible for operations, sales and marketing at FXI in an effort to expand the companyÆs market share, which the company estimates at 46.8% of new funds issued in China.

FXIÆs main China indices are the China A50, aimed at qualified foreign institutional investors and covering the largest A-share companies by market capitalisation, the China 25 index covering the top 25 H-share and Red chip companies, and its Hong Kong Index series, designed for qualified domestic institutional investors in China and used by ChinaÆs Social Security Fund as its Hong Kong benchmark.

The company is had a difficult time last year after it lost a case for breach of contract brought against it by SSE Infonet, the Shanghai Stock ExchangeÆs in-house market data provider.

FXI stressed that Zhu ShanÆs promotion was unrelated to the loss of the case and Mark Makepeace, chief executive of the FTSE Group and co-chairman of FXI, stressed that YenÆs appointment would help to expand the business and enhance FXIÆs market leading position in China.