BlackRock has launched its first Asia-Pacific market-neutral fund aimed at retail investors in Singapore and Hong Kong, marking a significant push by the world’s largest asset manager into alternative strategies for wealth clients, according to a report by Business Times.
The Systematic Asia Pacific Equity Absolute Return Fund – previously available only to institutions since its 2017 debut – employs a systematic long-short equity approach across more than 2,800 stocks, with the goal of delivering returns uncorrelated to broader equity markets.
The report quotes Head of Singapore Wealth Dennis Quah as saying that the fund “picks stocks we expect to outperform and shorts those we expect to underperform,” using machine-learning models to process signals ranging from executive communications to market sentiment. The strategy generated a 23.7% gain in 2024 and held US$727 million in net assets as of 31 May.
BlackRock is rolling out the fund on major retail platforms including UOB and Citibank Singapore, stressing the importance of investor education around absolute return fund mechanics. “Hedging is designed to reduce unwanted risk, not amplify it,” Quah notes, acknowledging common misconceptions fuelled by past crises.
With Blackrock Chair Larry Fink positing in his 2025 annual investor letter that the traditional 60/40 equity/bond portfolio allocation should become 50/30/20, with the addition of a 20% alternatives allocation, the new fund is positioned to offers Asian retail investors an entry point into liquid alts.
