Stewart Investors has partnered with DBS Bank to distribute its Asia Pacific Leaders strategy to investors in Singapore.
The strategy, launched in 2003, focuses on what it deems high-quality companies in the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, with a market value of at least $1bn.
Lead manager David Gait and his team invest in companies that are well positioned to contribute to, and benefit from, sustainable development.
The strategy, which has $925m in assets within its VCC vehicle, follows a bottom-up, high conviction, benchmark agnostic investment approach.
The managers run between 30 and 60 positions and place an emphasis on capital preservation as well as capital growth.
Hugh O’Neill, business head of Stewart Investors, said: “We are excited to partner with DBS Bank, one of the largest banks in Asia, which has more than five decades of experience across the region with an extensive business network as well as a strong commitment to building lasting relationships with its customers.”
“We are seeing investor demand for portfolio diversification in the region,” he added. “In addition to its proven track record of capital preservation during market downturns such as the global financial crisis and covid-19, Stewart Investors Asia Pacific Leaders strategy has low correlation to peers and index, offering investors a valuable opportunity to diversify their portfolios amid market uncertainty.”
Kenneth Teow, head of fund selection at DBS Private Bank, said: “We believe the new offering will offer diversification benefits to our clients, while providing exposure to high quality companies with strong growth prospects that meet present and future needs of the society and environment.”
Stewart Investors late last year opted to remove the sustainability label from its fund range.
“We would rather focus on improving our own approach to sustainable investment than lose focus trying to second-guess regulatory changes,” the firm explained in a client letter.
