The growth and proliferation of locally domiciled mutual funds in Hong Kong is not a threat to the popularity of Ucits funds, already widely used in the territory, argues Camille Thommes, director general of the Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI).
BNP Paribas Asset Management plans a big build-out of its regional fixed income team, including a portfolio manager in Singapore and analysts in Hong Kong and mainland China.
Post-1MDB, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has reinforced its focus on anti-money laundering (AML). Damayanti Shahani provides a snapshot of what a fund management firm can expect.
New international accounting rules that came into force on 1 January will impede banks’ lending activity, making room for private lending market, according to Craig Reeves, founder of Prestige Funds.
If the regulator allows the weighted voting rights structure, it will tilt Hong Kong’s stock market toward tech stocks, bringing higher valuations but also increased volatility, argues Tobias Bland, CEO of Enhanced Investment Products.
Old Mutual Global Investors’ global emerging markets fund has become more concentrated since it was taken in-house and handed to the firm’s new GEM team.
Convertible bonds, which combine features of bonds and equities, are coming back as interest rates rise, argues Christophe Machu, investment specialist on the multi-asset and convertibles team at M&G Investments.
Contingent convertible (coco) debt of European banks is mispriced relative to other bank debt and this presents an arbitrage opportunity, argues Marc Stacey, portfolio manager at Bluebay Asset Management.
EFG joins the consensus that basically expects a continuation of market conditions from 2017, and the firm maintains overweights on the US, Japan and EM equities.
Vietnam stands out among frontier markets because of economic growth, favourable stock valuations and abundant natural resources, argues Joshua Crabb, head of Asian equities at OMGI.
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