Q3-2019 Swiss-Asia Communication

6th November 2019

Q3-2019 Swiss-Asia Communication

Swiss-Asia Holding Pte Ltd

Written by Steve Knabl, COO & Managing Partner - Reading Time: 2.5 Minutes

In Asia Q3-2019 was marked by the ongoing and relentless unrest in Hong Kong. The political and econo-social situation in Hong Kong has increased uncertainties in the gateway to China. What started as a demonstration to an Extradition Law amendment has now become outright social unrest. It goes without saying that the negative effect on business and business sentiment has started to impact strategic decisions on how to manage a business from Hong Kong in the longer term.

Swiss-Asia has assessed the longer-term impact of this unrest on its business and remains committed to Hong Kong with a long term perspective, but shorter term, we have decided to reduce certain business exposures and only take on new strategic business very selectively. We have decided to relocate to a smaller and more flexible office space. The focus will also be on streamlining middle and back-office operations with a view of offering Operations Only Services sometime in the near future. We are further resolved to take advantage of the increased interest of Singapore as a Financial Centre and the new Singapore-Variable Capital Company (S-VCC) fund structure and anticipate to launch our First S-VCC sometime in Q1-2020. 

As many readers know, Hong Kong’s Open-ended Fund Company (OFC) regime also saw its first registration in August 2019. As the Economic Substance Laws in the offshore centers are fuelling an increased 'onshorisation' of funds, I am of the opinion that Singapore and Hong Kong are major benefiters in Asia. This is reflected by the increasing availability and use of onshore fund vehicles like the OFC, VCC, Singapore’s limited partnership vehicle and Hong Kong's proposed limited partnership for funds.  Furthermore, the friendly and pragmatic tax regimes of both jurisdictions allow us to structure tax-efficient setups without the use of offshore vehicles.

If you are interested in discussing your options/alternatives for the Economic Substance Laws in the Cayman a BVI, please do reach out to us as we have been working with our offshore and onshore tax consultants and legal counsels to solve for most scenarios.

SWISS-ASIA PLATFORM FUNDS PERFORMANCE SNAPSHOT

The Swiss-Asia platform funds continue to outperform their peers. Vanda and Prulev continue to astonish and prove their resilience. LTCP the long-biased global Emerging Markets player is proving to be an outstanding stock picker with over 45% exposure to Russia and CIS countries. Fund One, our Systematic Quant CTA is edging it's way up the ladder with consistent monthly numbers month after month on par with the Salmon Global Fund.

FUND PLATFORM DEVELOPMENTS

We have not had any launches in Q3-2019, but we are preparing for an exciting Crypto Fund launch and FX Fund launch sometime in Q4-2019. We also anticipate that Q1-2020 will also be a strong quarter for fund launches. More information on this in our next update.

On a more negative note, The Sunspur Global fund has left the platform on the 1st of September. We are also in the midst of liquidating the SICAV SIF - ValueTech Fund and the Kryptos Alpha Fund due to lackluster performance numbers.

WEALTH MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENTS

We look forward to announcing some very interesting Wealth Management hires in our next update.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Director of Communications and Business Development - We would like to welcome Mrs. Katharina M. Kaluza, our new Director of Communications who has joined the Swiss Asia team on the 17th September 2019. Katharina brings with her over 20 years of professional experience acquired in diverse positions such as Marketing, Procurement and Global Program Management across several multinational companies like Nokia, Danone, Sodexo and, more recently Amway. Katharina holds a Post-Master degree in East European Economics acquired at the University Stendhal, France.  At Swiss Asia, Katharina will be the point of contact for any media-related matters going forward. She will be in charge of re-branding our company image and she will manage and organize our Capital Introduction and Fundies events. Katharina is also in charge of sourcing and developing business for our special Club deals under our Wealth Management Business.

We have also strengthened our Compliance team with the addition of a Risk and Compliance Officer as well as the addition of two Operations Officers in our Middle and Back Office team.  

We have also unfortunately seen some departures in various roles. One notable departure was Mr. Riccardo Lehmann, our Hong Kong MD, who has decided to relocate to Australia. We thank him for his services during the 4 years he Managed our Hong Kong office and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

On behalf of the Swiss-Asia team, we wish you all a great 4th Quarter 2019 and look forward to closing off the year with a few exciting new Fund launches and some new hires on the Wealth Management side of our business.

Steve Knabl