AIA Investment Management is expected to launch its first batch of retail mutual funds in Singapore.
The firm has lodged an application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to roll out the AIA Singapore Bond Fund and the AIA India Equity Fund, according to the regulator’s records.
The funds are Luxembourg-domiciled Ucits products, according to their prospectus.
AIA IM in Singapore was incorporated in 2016 as the hub for regional investment management and central trading for its Hong Kong parent insurer, AIA. In 2019, AIA IM launched its Luxembourg Ucits funds platform, AIA Investment Funds.
The platform already has nine funds, but all strategies are only available to professional investors, according to the firm’s website.
FSA sought more information from AIA IM, but the firm was not able to provide more information in time for publication.
The Hong Kong insurer has become active in the fund management space in the region.
In August last year, AIA IM established a presence in Thailand last year, after it received licences for private fund management and mutual fund management from Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time, the firm said that the Thai investment management unit’s first funds will comprise five domestic products and four foreign investment funds.
Also in the same year, AIA IM in Hong Kong received approval from the Securities and Futures Commission to roll out eight mutual fund products. The funds are part of the firm’s new “AIA Wealth Funds” series, which is an “investment engine that provides a flexible building block for savings products and investment-linked assurance schemes”, according to the firm’s website.
