Fintech company iCapital has bought Bank of Singapore’s in-house private market feeder fund platform , taking over the management and operation of the bank’s private market feeder funds while Bank of Singapore retains client servicing responsibilities.
According to an announcement by OCBC, owner of Bank of Singapore, iCapital paid $5m for the platform.
The deal was completed on 28 February, and includes the feeder funds Straits 01 – Dover VII and Straits Private Equity Investment SPC on the platform, which has total assets of about $2bn.
Following the close of the transaction, iCapital, which offers an alternatives investment marketplace for asset and wealth managers, services approximately $114bn in global private assets, of which more than $27bn billion are from international investors across 940 funds.
Extended partnership
The deal builds on an existing partnership between the two companies. Bank of Singapore previously tapped iCapital to build out a technology and feeder fund service to offer the bank’s advisors a platform for selecting private market investments for inclusion in client portfolios including private equity, private credit, and real assets.
“By partnering with the iCapital team on the management of our private market feeder funds business, we can ensure that our relationship managers and their clients have access to the industry’s leading technology and education offerings within the private market investing space, ” said Leong Guan Lim, global head of products at Bank of Singapore, in a statement.
Bank of Singapore will continue to source and monitor private market investments for its clients and provide advice to its clients on private market investments within a diversified investment strategy. iCapital will become the provider of custom private market funds for the bank’s high net-worth clients.
As part of the deal, the bank’s wealth managers also gain access to AltsEdge, an educational platform sponsored by the iCapital Foundation and CAIA, designed to help wealth managers better understand alternative investments and how they can leverage them to improve client outcomes. The programme consists of ten guided modules covering the private markets, various types of strategies and product structures and portfolio construction.
“This deal is a key milestone in iCapital’s expansion strategy in Apac,” said Marco Bizzozero, head of International at iCapital, in the statement.
Founded in 2013, iCapital is headquartered in New York and has offices in Zurich, London, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Toronto.
Bank of Singapore is the private banking subsidiary of OCBC Bank. It operates on an open-architecture product platform and serves wealthy individuals and families in Southeast Asia, Greater China, Philippines, India sub-continent and other international markets.
Bank of Singapore has branches in Hong Kong and Dubai, a representative office in Manila, and in Malaysia it operates through BOS Wealth Management Malaysia. The bank offers wealth management services in the European Economic Area under the BOS Wealth Management Europe brand name.
