Q4-2017 Swiss-Asia Communication

10th January 2018

Q4-2017 Swiss-Asia Communication - Swiss-Asia Holding Pte Ltd

Written by Steve Knabl, COO & Managing Partner

Reading Time: 4 Minutes

Q4-207 Synopsis 

Firstly, on behalf of Swiss-Asia we would like to take this opportunity to wish you all an awesome 2018!

As we close off 2017 and look forward to 2018, we can't help thinking about what this year may bring. While there will certainly be further challenges and much work ahead, we ended 2017 stronger and better able to serve our clients and partners. By weathering through the challenges of 2017, we are set on building a stronger, more established company - one that is better organized to serve our clients even better.

Our direction is clear: we must provide our clients with the best service and the most comprehensive solutions in the market, while continuously building our brand and doing our part to keep the economy moving forward by offering services the market needs. We continue to strive to amplify our existing strengths in Singapore and to gradually grow our footprint in Hong Kong.

From an events perspective, we held our usual set of Fundies and Capital Introduction events in Singapore and Hong Kong in 2017 and all were a great success. As usual, buy side and sell side got together and networked through the evening around great food and drinks. We would like to once again thank our sponsors who made these events possible. #Hublot, #Dynamo Software, #Arthur Bell, #Campbells, #KGI Futures #Apvera, #Conyers Dill & Pearman, #LGT Bank, #Accuity.

FUND PERFORMANCE SNAPSHOT

Our top performers ended 2017 with some very respectable numbers. Some of which globally commendable.

Prulev marked another fantastic year with a YTD of +51.80% and AVM Global completed its first calendar year with +18.93%. Both strategies have featured among the top funds throughout 2017, displaying consistency in their process and performance. Another notable performer was Vanda Global, which had a spectacular year with a YTD of over 250%. The Global Macro fund invests into a well-diversified portfolio consisting of equities, interest rates and commodities in global markets to achieve capital appreciation.

Good performance wasn't just limited to Global Macro Funds. Other Hedge Funds like Rare Metals Fund, Ddraig Equity Fund, and Salmon Global displayed their consistency too. On the Long-Only Absolute Return side, Heritage Sunspur Global and Shenton Global Dividend AMC performed strongly too.

Congratulations to every one of them for a good 2017! We would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate all the managers on our platform and we look forward to continuing to support them into the new year and beyond.

FUND PLATFORM DEVELOPMENTS

Despite a few serious delays in new fund launches in Q4 2017, we launched 7 Funds in 2017. In Q4, we optimistically anticipated launching an additional 5 funds and 2 AMC's to bring the tally to 13 launches for the year. Unfortunately, due to set-backs caused by different concurring reasons, we only managed to launch the Whiteridge Strategic Partners Fund SPC in the last quarter of 2017. We conservatively expect that our backlog will be caught up in the first quarter of 2018.

On the 21st of December 2017 we officially launched the WHITERIDGE REAL ESTATE FUND I SP ("WREF I"). This first Segregated Portfolio under the Whiteridge Strategic Partners Fund SPC will seek to provide an income return with a target internal rate of return of 11 – 15% through investing primarily in undervalued mixed-use Property Investments within London, with a scope for high-value enhancements. The Investment Manager will aim to meet the investment objective by implementing a well-defined, value-added strategy that focuses on a strategic portfolio of Property Investments to ensure that the portfolio is diversified and that each asset can make a meaningful contribution to the portfolio’s performance. The Investment Manager has identified a compelling opportunity for WREF I to invest in a portfolio of mixed-use commercial Property Investments within London which the fund will purchase, reposition, asset-manage for investment and then sell to drive value over the investment term. Please refer to our Q2-2017 Communication for the Bio's of the Portfolio Managers, Robert Campkin and Jason Ong.

We also have some interesting developments on the HERITAGE GLOBAL CAPITAL FUND front. Mr. Tee Leng Goh joined the team as Fund Manager. He has over five years of experience in the financial markets. He is the Director of Tat Hwa Group, a privately-held, family-owned investment holding, and management company, serving as the foundation of the Group’s umbrella of companies and subsidiaries. Additionally, he sits on the Board of Advisors for Platinum Circle, Global Assets & Wealth and Fast Growing Initiative. He is a frequent speaker at investment conferences held by SGX, RHB, and CIMB, and his investment-related articles have been published internationally. He graduated with a BSc (Hons.) Economics degree from University College London (UCL).

WEALTH PLATFORM 

Q4 was a quarter with no notable events and no new hires. As we enter the peak season for recruitments in this sector we stay positive and look forward to meeting some great Wealth Managers and making some exciting announcements soon.

HUMAN RESOURCES

Singapore

Two Wealth Managers, Benjamin Dumke and Nicholas Gikas, have left Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte Ltd with effect 31st December 2017. The whole team at Swiss-Asia wish both all the best in their future endeavors.

Hong Kong

Kennie Atle Johansen and his team Eunice Cheng and Taehong Kim have joined Swiss-Asia from Millennium WorldQuant on 1st December 2017 in view of setting up a systematic quantitative equity market neutral strategy. The Fund aims to deliver high risk-adjusted returns with low volatility and will invest in equities across the entire Asia Pacific region.  Kennie and his team have over 10 years of experience in the Asian hedge fund space, having previously held key positions at WorldQuant/Millennium Capital (HK), Société Générale (HK) and SAIL Advisors. More on this

FINTECH @ SWISS-ASIA

Cafelatte PMS by Telostat - We can now proudly announce that we have electronically connected 8 banks to our Portfolio Management System, namely, Credit Suisse, LGT, Julius Baer, Nordea, Pictet, Sarasin, UOB and VP Bank. The advantage is that the Telostat Cafelatte PMS allows us to consolidate client portfolios across banks and to produce tailored T+1 Risk monitoring and reporting on an automated basis. Another three Banks are in the process of being connected in Q1-2018.

Telostat is also in the process of implementing T+1 Risk & Compliance monitoring for monitoring risk metrics for the Platform Funds. This is understandably more complicated as the funds are all very different from each other and it is challenging to standardize; more to come on this in Q1-2018.

COMPLIANCE

Over the last 3 months, our Compliance department was busy with two major projects, the first being the registration with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the second being a registration with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC").

1. Swiss-Asia Asset Management (HK) Limited has applied to be registered as a Registered Investment Advisor ("RIA") with the SEC in December 2017. This registration allows Swiss-Asia to cater to a diversity of US-based clients which include institutional and professional clients that are based in and operate out of the USA.
2. Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte Ltd is in the process of registering as a Commodity Pool Operator (“CPO”) with the CFTC in the USA and this should be finalized by the end of the first quarter of 2018. Numerous Funds operating on the platform will also have to be registered individually.

Steve Knabl