The Bank of New York today announced a partnership between its Ivy Asset Management subsidiary and DBS Asset Management (DBSAM) in Singapore.
As part of the agreement, Ivy and DBSAM will launch the DBS Absolute Return Fund, the first in a series of alternative investment solutions for retail investors in Singapore. The fund will be distributed exclusively by DBS Bank, Singapore’s largest bank in terms of assets.
BNY says the funds aim to provide an alternative to traditional investments for Singaporean investors
aiming to diversify their portfolios. The partnership will also enable DBSAM to offer investors access to Ivy.
Joseph Tern, executive director of DBSAM, said, “Some investors have become averse to what they see as prolonged and excessive market volatility, and those who are impatient with the protracted negative returns on stock market investments are increasingly shifting their focus towards absolute, rather than relative, returns. After three years
of
weak
equity market performance, we believe that the introduction of this new asset class will serve as a booster to investors’ overall portfolio performance.
“For the DBS Absolute Return Fund, we have built a customized product that aims to provide a high-quality return profile coupled with low volatility and which excludes strategies commonly associated with volatile hedge funds, such as global macro, managed currencies and short selling.
We believe that absolute return funds are a rapidly growing asset class globally and have the potential to become a significant asset class in Asia,” continued Tern. “While the potential benefits of investing in absolute return funds are compelling, the risks are different from those of traditional equity funds.
For this reason, we have devoted an extensive amount of resources, time and effort in selecting a preferred partner who can work with us to deliver the most appropriate solutions for our customers.”
Jeffrey R. Lindenbaum, managing director of products and markets at Ivy Asset Management Corp., said, “The Asian market is ripe for this product category, and we are pleased to bring absolute return funds to Singapore.
We believe that investors in Singapore will welcome the chance to garner the benefits of investing in alternative investment funds, as have our other clients around the world. Ivy’s extensive experience will provide value to investors, as we may be able to help them reduce the impact of market volatility on their investments and better manage their portfolio risk.”
Kenneth Lopian, executive vice president and head of The Bank of New York’s
Asia-Pacific
Division, added, “We are excited about this opportunity to partner with DBSAM. We believe that Asian investors will greatly benefit from Ivy’s expertise in managing alternative investment funds, and we look forward to continuing and expanding a fruitful working partnership with DBSAM.”
Ivy
Asset Management is a well-established Fund of Hedge Fund managers, currently ranked among the top ten fund of fund houses in the world based on assets under management. As of December 31, 2002, the firm managed over $6.2 billion of investor capital for multi-national insurance corporations,
Fortune 500 companies, governmental and Taft-Harley pension plans, global investment banking firms, professional money mangers, foundations and endowments, and high-net-worth investors.
Development Bank of Singapore (DBS Bank) is the largest bank in Singapore by assets, and its Dao Heng Bank and DBS Kwong On Bank operations make it the fourth largest banking group in Hong Kong. DBS Asset Management (DBSAM) has over S$6 billion (approx. HK$27 billion) in assets for retail and private investors as well as institutional clients, as of December 2002.