Singapore

Shares of  United Overseas Bank rose by 2 percent with its plan to provide wealth management services to individuals with rising affluence.

Asian hedge funds are gicing up their secrecy and allowing clients more control of their investments in order to draw money from institutions.

Julius Baer Group Ltd. (VX: BAER) and Macquarie Group Ltd. (Macquarie, ASX: MQG) today announced they had entered into a strategic collaboration agreement. Julius Baer is the leading Swiss private banking group and Macquarie is a global financial services institution headquartered in the Asia Pacific. The agreement is based on future private and investment banking opportunities in North and South East Asia. Within the agreement Julius Baer will refer clients’ investment banking transactions to Macquarie. Macquarie will refer clients who require private banking services to Julius Baer and more of Macquarie’s investment banking products will be available to Julius Baer’s clients in Asia within the framework of Julius Baer’s open product platform. Additionally, Macquarie’s Asian Private Wealth business will be transferred to Julius Baer. Macquarie Private Wealth Asia has offices in Singapore and Hong Kong and manages total client assets of around USD 1 billion . Boris F.J. Collardi, CEO Julius Baer, commented on the cooperation with Macquarie: “We are very pleased to enter into a cooperation with this leading global financial institution in Asia. This is another important step to expand Julius Baer’s footprint in the world’s most important growth region, underlining our commitment to Asia as our second home market. I am convinced that the cooperation will be highly beneficial for both partners and our clients.” Nicholas Moore, CEO Macquarie Group, added: “We are delighted that our two organisations will have the opportunity to work together in Asia and we look forward to a productive relationship in the region as we combine our resources and expertise. We believe Macquarie’s deep specialist expertise in the Asia-Pacific region, developed over 42 years, will be of particular benefit to both parties.” With this latest move Julius Baer continues its ambitious growth strategy in Asia. Only recently, the Bank has published the ‘Julius Baer Wealth Report: Asia’, providing a comprehensive and exclusive analysis of the High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) landscape in this region. Julius Baer has been granted a representative office licence in Shanghai by the China Banking Regulatory Commission and remains the only private bank to hold a QFII licence by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Macquarie offers a full suite of banking, financial advisory, investment and funds management services in the Asia-Pacific. It continues to grow its Asia-Pacific franchise and broaden its product and geographic reach with approximately 10,000 staff in 26 locations across the region. In recent years Macquarie has been a manager on some of the largest IPOs in Asia, including the listing of Agricultural Bank of China.  

Nikko AM and DBS Bank completed the agreement to merge DBS Asset Management Ltd  and Nikko AM.

DBS Bank and NDB Group have signed an MoU  to collaborate in equity and fixed income issuances, syndications, project financing and mergers and acquisitions.

Threadneedle has appointed three senior Sales Directors to cover Wholesale markets in Asia. Gerard Clancy, Richmond Herrera and Kent Ng all join Threadneedle this month, reporting to Michael Langlois, Head of Wholesale Distribution in Asia Pacific.

DBS Bank unveiled its new regional DBS Treasures Private Client platform. It is specially designed to cater to the fast-growing segment of new wealth creators in Asia.

Brooks Entwistle will move to Singapore as Goldman Sachs Southeast Asia chairman and head of investment banking.

JPMorgan's corporate bank will increase its investments and bankers in Southeast Asia.

Credit Suisse appointed Francesco de Ferrari as market area head to oversee private banking in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

DBS Private Bank today announced the appointment of two senior private bankers to its Indonesia team based in Singapore. Stanley Puah Soon Kwang and Tan See Wee will help to drive the bank’s private banking business and deliver growth for the Indonesia market. Stanley Puah, 46, joined DBS in January as senior vice president and team leader for the Indonesia market. In his new role, Puah will manage a team of up to 10 private bankers. He has been tasked to further grow DBS Private Bank’s market share in Indonesia, with a special focus on cities like Jakarta, Medan, Bandung and Pekanbaru. Most recently, Puah was with HSBC Private Bank Singapore as a senior director managing ultra high net worth clients in Indonesia and other regional markets. With some 22 years of experience growing relationships and assets from Indonesian clients, Puah’s in-depth knowledge of the market will help DBS accelerate the pace of growth of its private banking business in the USD 80 billion Indonesia HNWI market. Puah had also previously worked at Merrill Lynch, Citi Private Bank, Coutts Bank Singapore and UBS.      Tan See Wee, 43, rejoined DBS in January as senior vice president and deputy team leader. Tan brings to DBS 20 years of investment management, asset allocation and risk analysis expertise in various asset classes including stocks, bonds, private equity and hedge funds. He started his banking career with DBS in the early 90s, focusing on asset management and investment banking. Tan joined DBS from Great Eastern Life Assurance where he was most recently its head investment strategist for the regional investment division. Previously, Tan also worked at UBS, Citi Private Bank, Invesco Asia in Hong Kong and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London. He was also a founding partner of VinChi Capital, a private equity firm that focused on real estate and infrastructure opportunities in Vietnam. Tan Su Shan, Group Head of Wealth Management at DBS, said, "As we work towards becoming the leading private bank in Asia, one of our priorities over the last year has been to focus on training and grooming talent from within. To support our growth ambitions, we have supplemented this with a number of strategic hires. Our ability to attract highly experienced, high-calibre people to DBS Private Bank is testament to the strength of the DBS brand and our Asia franchise. With the rise of Asia, increasingly, we are seeing private bankers gravitate towards opportunities presented by being part of an Asian bank, offering Asian portfolio solutions." DBS Private Bank has been named the "Best Local Private Bank in Singapore" for four consecutive years (2007-2010) by the Euromoney Private Banking Poll. It was also voted as the "Best Domestic Private Bank in Singapore" in the Asiamoney Private Banking Poll in July 2010. In October 2010, DBS Private Bank was named "Best Private Bank in Singapore" by The Banker and Professional Wealth Management, which are part of the Financial Times Group.  

The old Bank of Singapore has been renamed Singapore Island Bank.

Lion Global Funds will be terminated with effect from 30 April 2011. As at 31 December 2010, the total net asset value of each Sub-Fund has fallen below S$5million. As a result, the expense ratio of the respective Sub-Funds has been consistently high. The group believes that at such a high expense ratio, the Sub-Funds will not provide a favourable level of return to its Unitholders, and it would be prejudicial to your interests as a Unitholder for the Sub-Funds to continue operating.  

Aviva Investors appointed Kevin Talbot and Manish Singhai as chief investment officers for fixed income and equities, respectively, for Asia.

US fund manager Janus named Augustus Cheh as president of non-U.S. business arm Janus Capital International. It also stated that it will base a fund manager in Singapore as part of a plan to grow its global operations. Cheh, formerly CEO of AllianceBernstein Hong Kong, will take up his new position at Janus effective March 29. He will be based in Hong Kong. Janus, which manages $161 billion globally, also announced plans to grow its Singapore operations by hiring Hiroshi Yoh as portfolio manager of Asian equity strategies and Singapore CEO. "Yoh will help to build up an on-the-ground investment team�based in�Singapore," a Janus spokesman in Hong Kong said. "This will enhance our existing research capabilities and allow us to increase stock coverage in this very important region." Yoh, previously Tokio Marine Asset Management's Singapore CEO and chief investment officer for Asia excluding Japan, will start on April 1.  

Aviva Investors has received a licence to provide fund management services to retail and institutional investors in Singapore.