Discretionary traction?
Ma also shared developments within the firm, including its DPM business in China.
Since its launch two years ago, Ma is seeing “continuous flows” into its DPM strategy, but declined to give figures.
“It’s a combination of reasons. Last year, both Chinese and overseas equities and bonds were down, so investors were looking for professional advice on asset allocation.
“Another reason is that they are willing to sacrifice liquidity. For our DPM, we are talking about a lock-up period of three-five years, with a minimum ticket size of $5m.”
Ma explained that the firm’s DPM product is similar to an endowment fund, with 25-30% of assets in private equity and the rest is in liquid strategies, including equities, fixed income and hedge funds.
Ultra high net worth investors in China tend to hold around 45% of their assets in alternatives, Ma said, quoting data from private equity firm KKR.
Australia target
Plans are underway for Noah’s wealth management business to expand offshore.
In Australia, Noah has partnered with six of the 10 largest family offices, according to Ma. In 2017, the 10 largest family offices managed around A$83.52bn ($59.57bn) in assets, according to data from the global family office network The Table Club.
The firm launched its wealth management business in the country early last year and now has around 15 staff.
“The main purpose in Australia originally was to serve domestic Chinese clients. But after one year, we saw increased interest from Australian investors to invest in the Chinese market.”
Ma believes that the case is similar in Canada, where the firm opened two years ago.
“We held conferences in Canada, and we found out that the huge global pension funds are planning to double their China A-share allocation between now to 2025. Those are big tickets we are talking about, around hundreds of billions of AUM.”
The firm also opened its Singapore office in June and has five people, expected to grow to 15. Ma said the majority will be in business development and relationship management roles.
Plans are to target Chinese investors in Singapore as well as institutional investors in the Asean region.
Hong Kong will continue to be Noah’s global hub. It opened in 2012, and now has 130 staff and $3.5bn in assets under administration, he said.
