Walter Beckett, a sales director previously based in Brown Advisory’s London office since 2015, has moved to the city-state as head of Asia Pacific (Apac) to lead the expansion of the business in the region, according to a statement.
Brown Advisory manages $700m in assets for its Apac clients, who include rich individuals and families, charities and other institutions, according to the firm.
“We are confident that having a local presence will help us better serve our clients and build new relationships within the market,” Logie Fitzwilliams, head of international advisory said in the statement.
The employee-owned, Baltimore-based firm manages five funds that are authorised for sale to retail investors in Singapore. These include the Brown Advisory: America, US Equity Growth, US Flexible Growth, US Small Cap Blend and US Smaller Companies funds.
All of them have been awarded three crowns by FE Analytics except the $383m US Flexible Growth Fund which has four crowns.
The Smaller Companies Fund has the best three-year cumulative performance, returning 59.63% to 5 April 2019 and beating its benchmark Russell 2000 Growth index (56.96%), followed by the US Equity Growth Fund (58.96%), which slightly underperformed its benchmark, the Russell 1000 Growth index (62.5%).
The Smaller Companies Fund is predominantly invested in the telecom, media and technology and consumer products sectors, The Equity Growth Fund also has large exposures to these sectors as well as 20% allocation to healthcare companies.
However, the highest rated — although not best performing fund — is the Global Leaders Fund, with five crowns from FE and five stars from Morningstar, is unavailable to either Singapore or Hong Kong retail investors.
Brown Advisory was founded in 1993 and became independent five years later. It has clients in 37 countries and is responsible for about $71bn in client assets as of the end of February, according to the statement. It has offices in the US in addition to one in London and the new office in Singapore.
Performance of the five Brown Advisory funds available to Singapore retail investors
