Neuberger registers nine UCITS funds in Korea

“I believe it will be another excellent opportunity for us to introduce our products, and in particular, help us build deeper relationship with investors in Korea,” said Ryo Ohira, managing director and head of East Asia. 

As a part of its expansion drive in Asia, the investment manager in April made 11 funds available to the retail market in Hong Kong and a further three in Singapore.

In May, the fund house also strengthened its marketing and sales team in Asia by appointing six new marketing and sales executives across its Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan offices to meet client demand.

As of July 2014, Neuberger Berman managed over $18bn in assets for institutional and individual clients across its Ireland-based UCITS range. 

Korean market attraction

Korea’s asset management industry is growing. The AUM of 86 fund companies in Korea totaled KRW647 trn ($630bn) at the end of the first half of 2014, up 2.9% over the previous year, according to data from Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service. 

The authority attributed the rise mostly to increases in alternative investment products such as real estate funds and special asset funds, and discretionary investment contracts by institutional investors including insurance companies and pension funds.

The aggregate net income of the asset management companies for the first half of 2014 came to KRW212.0 bn, up 51.8% over the previous year. The top 10 asset managers accounted for 67% of the total net profit, the data showed.

However, the domestic stock market has underperformed Asia’s key indicies over the past three years.