Published by Asia Asset Management – 2nd Nov 2018
Singapore’s asset management industry had S$3.26 trillion (US$2.36 trillion) of assets under management (AUM) in 2017, up 18.8% from 2016, as both traditional and alternative investments posted double-digit gains, according to the city state’s central bank.
Assets in traditional investments, including stocks, bonds and unit trusts, jumped 20%, or S$434 billion, to S$2.7 trillion.
Assets in alternative investments such as private equity, real estate and hedge funds grew 17%, or S$82 billion, to S$560 billion.
Allocations to equities increased to 44% of total AUM last year from 42% in 2016 due to “improved economic fundamentals led by increased investments into Asia Pacific”, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) says in a report on its 2017 asset management survey. AUM of equity investments increased to S$1.43 trillion from S$1.15 trillion in 2016. Allocations to bonds declined three percentage points to 21% of total AUM last year, in line with “outflows seen broadly across all regions”, MAS says in the 23-page report released on October 25. Still, bond AUM rose 8.47%, or S$53.18 billion, to S$684.6 billion.
Overall, the size of collective investment schemes or retail investment funds, including unit trusts and mutual funds, breached the S$100 billion mark for the first time last year, rising 23.1% to S$101 billion.
“This translated to a 16% average growth rate in the past five years,” MAS says.
The industry also recorded the first increase in net inflow of funds in three years in 2017.
Net inflows widened to S$220 billion from S$116 billion in 2016, which the central bank attributes to “favourable demand for Asian investment strategies in both fixed income and equities which are predominantly managed out of Singapore”.
The survey drew 800 respondents, including banks, capital markets services licensees,financial advisers and insurance companies. It does not include direct investments by government-related entities.
