By Ashmita Chhabra and Mark Voumard – Singapore stands out as best in class as a location to do business in APAC with its political and economic stability, sound and predictable regulation, an engaged regulator, world-class infrastructure, and as an innovative financial centre with a well-developed range of service providers.
By Ashmita Chhabra and Mark Voumard – Singapore stands out as best in class as a location to do business in APAC with its political and economic stability, sound and predictable regulation, an engaged regulator, world-class infrastructure, and as an innovative financial centre with a well-developed range of service providers.
Singapore is fast becoming an APAC hub for asset managers domiciling their investment funds in addition to their investment management activities. Singapore’s asset management industry grew strongly in 2020, with AuM rising by more than 17 per cent to SGD4.7 trillion (USD3.50 trillion).
The introduction of the Variable Capital Company (VCC) in January 2020 generated strong interest from local and a growing number of global investors even during the pandemic, with over 400 VCCs launched to date. Recognising a need for investment funds to be structured as corporate entities, the VCC incorporates the best features of a fund into a corporate structure, providing a flexible and effective option for global asset and wealth managers looking at the region. Additionally, VCCs can avail themselves of certain tax incentive schemes, including access to 90+ DTAs. Singapore is the ideal location to domicile Asian-focused funds and further, a base to forge fund distribution and wealth management partnerships.
Apart from asset managers, family offices have been early adopters of the VCC, leveraging the novel features of the structure, with the combined benefit of government incentives for family relocation, coupled with tax incentives and exemptions for family offices, for more effective wealth management.
Singapore’s strong focus on sustainability resulted in the MAS being the first central bank in Asia, and the second in the world, to publish a standalone sustainability report in June 2021, setting out its strategies to facilitate Singapore’s transition to a low carbon future.
MAS is working with financial institutions to strengthen the Singapore financial sector’s resilience against environmental risks, further cementing its commitment to ESG mid-2021 by announcing it is investing USD1.8 billion (SGD2.4 billion) into climate-related investment opportunities.
Singapore is extremely well positioned for global asset and wealth managers, asset owners, banks and other financial institutions that have begun to add Singapore in their asset management hub set-up and expansion plans to ride the growth momentum in and from which to access the region.
The launch of Singapore Funds Industry Group (SFIG) in April 2021, as a partnership between MAS and the private sector brings together the entire asset management ecosystem (investors, fund managers and service providers) with a common goal of supporting Singapore’s rise to a leading global full-service asset management and fund domiciliation hub.
SFIG’s mandate is to identify emerging industry trends and formulate strategies that will drive this mission via four Working Groups: Infrastructure & Innovation, Policy, Capabilities & Training, and Promotion & Advocacy.
MAS has been lauded as a forward-thinking regulator demonstrating a willingness to engage and collaborate with practitioners to create a balanced and effective environment for business, which goes a long way in supporting the growth and further development of the asset management industry in Singapore.
Ashmita Chhabra
Managing Director
Business Development – Asia Pacific, Apex Group
Executive Committee Member and Co-Chair of the Promotion and Advocacy Working Group, Singapore Funds Industry Group (SFIG). Ashmita is based in Singapore and oversees business development and strategy at Apex Group. She has over 17 years’ experience working with asset allocators and fund managers in the alternatives funds sector. Prior to Apex, Ashmita spent a decade building the global alternatives research business at Eurekahedge, a subsidiary of Mizuho Bank with her teams in Singapore and New York. She is Chair of the Singapore Fund Administrators Association (SFAA).
Mark Voumard
Founder and CEO of Gordian Capital
Executive Committee Member and Co-Chair of the Promotion and Advocacy Working Group, Singapore Funds Industry Group (SFIG). Mark Voumard, who has almost four decades of experience in Asia, is founder and CEO of Gordian Capital, Asia’s leading independent alternatives institutional platform and fund structuring specialist (AuM USD7 billion) where since 2005, he has been involved in the structuring and launch of over 100 funds (hedge, private equity, venture capital, real estate, and private credit).
