Barings opens Singapore office

Barings is opening an office in Singapore, as the firm expands its operations in Asia-Pacific, according to a press statement.

The country operations, which will serve as a hub for Southeast Asia investment opportunities, will be led by SooHai Lim, managing director and head of Asia Equities ex-China, who manages the Barings Asia Growth Fund and the Asean Frontiers Fund.

“Lim and part of his team will be relocating to Singapore from Hong Kong, and the firm is looking to hire local staff as the business expands,” a spokeswoman told FSA.

Initially, Barings will have four investment professionals and three non-investment professionals in Singapore, with plans to expand in the coming years, according to the statement.

“The four investment professionals will be from the equity team covering research and portfolio management out of Singapore. The other three people will work on office support functions such as IT,” said the spokeswoman.

“We are targeting to open in 2021, and this is a natural step in our expansion in Asia and we have been planning this for a while,” she said.

“The office will enhance our investment research by putting us closer to the companies that we invest in across our funds, and we have existing clients in Singapore currently serviced out of Hong Kong,” she added.

Barings had $354bn of AUM globally as of end-September across public and private fixed income, real estate and equity markets, according to the press statement, and the firm is a subsidiary of US financial services firm MassMutual.

“Asia-Pacific is an important growth engine for Barings and a full presence in Singapore will serve as an important gateway to additional Southeast Asia investment opportunities to help us better serve our existing clients, and build new client relationships,” said Barings chairman and CEO Mike Freno in the statement