Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator has appointed three foreign and three local asset managers to manage S$2.85 billion (US$2.19 billion) in the second batch of its S$5 billion equity market development programme.
The foreign firms are Japan’s Amova Asset Management, US asset management giant BlackRock and Canada’s Manulife Investment Management.
The local firms AR Capital, Lion Global Investors, and Eastspring Investment, the Singapore-based asset management arm of UK insurer Prudential plc.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the appointments and the size of their mandate in a statement on November 19.
The first batch of three was appointed in July with a funding of S$1.1 billion. They are J.P. Morgan Asset Management from the US and local firms Fullerton Fund Management and Avanda Investment Management.
The equity market development programme or EQDP is aimed at channelling funds to asset managers with strong track records for investing in Singapore’s stock market. It was proposed by the MAS equities market review group that was set up last year to recommend measures to make the local stock market more attractive for investors.
“To this end, these local, regional and global managers bring diverse expertise, investment strategies and distribution networks to attract a broader investor base to Singapore’s equities market,” MAS says.
The regulator says the firms can use the funding to participate in initial public offerings and add to the pool of capital that supports cornerstone investments for high-quality new listings.
HuiJian Koh, chief executive officer of Manulife Investments Management (Singapore) says the company is honored to be selected to partner with MAS on this initiative to strengthen the local asset management and research ecosystem and increase investor interest and engagement in Singapore’s equities market.
“By combining global capabilities with local on-the-ground expertise, we aim to enhance market vibrancy and create long-term value for investors,” Koh says in a statement on November 19.
He adds that Manulife Investment Management brings a “unique combination of experience, scale, and disciplined process”.
“We will leverage our ability to raise external capital across institutional, retail and insurance-linked channels, as well as internally through our balance sheet, to amplify impact and support market vibrancy. Underpinning this is our bottom-up, fundamentals-driven investment approach, applied consistently across Asia to deliver attractive risk-adjusted returns,” she says.
