AR Capital says it will be launching its new fund under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) in the second quarter of this year.
The fund will be named the “AR Majulah SG Fund” and will be managed by a team of nine portfolio managers and analysts. AR Capital’s executive director and portfolio manager Millicent Lai tells The Edge Singapore that AR Capital’s founder and CEO, Leong Wah Kheong will be involved in the fund as well.
Both Leong and Lai were formerly from Schroders. Leong left Schroders in 2005 to set up AR Capital and Lai joined him in 2008. Leong was CIO for Asia ex-Japan equities at Schroders, while Lai was a director and senior portfolio manager with Schroders’s Asia Pacific ex-Japan equities team.
“This fund would be a long-only fund. It’s going to be actively managed, focused on Singapore and Singapore nexus equities,” says the fund’s lead analyst Lam Min Hwui.
Singapore nexus equities refers to companies who may not be listed in Singapore but are engaged in a lot of activity in Singapore, whether it be in terms of their management, operations or intellectual property. The term also refers to companies who are pre-IPO and planning to list in Singapore.
“Our strategy will combine bottom-up stock selection and a portfolio framework centred around basically three groups of stocks,” Lam continues.
AR Capital has three themes in their equity selection process. Firstly, stocks demonstrating secular growth which refers to businesses that are exposed to long-term trends and can grow through and above the market cycle. This includes companies in areas such as AI infrastructure, healthcare and advanced manufacturing.
Secondly, stocks that are engaging in corporate value unlock activities. This refers to businesses who are undertaking portfolio rationalisation, increasing their capital return programs or working on improvements in their corporate governance and shareholder engagements.
Lastly, dividend growers. This refers to stocks that can grow their dividends over time. Lam says the fund isn’t looking for companies with a high headline yield. Rather, they are more keen on counters that can demonstrate steady and sustainable dividend growth.
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“We are going to be conscious of benchmarks in Singapore but at the same time we are not trying to mirror a benchmark because if you mirror a benchmark, that will be an ETF,” Lai says.
AR Capital was one of nine fund managers that the MAS selected to receive funding under the EQDP. On Feb 12, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong announced in Budget 2026 that he will be topping up the EQDP fund with an additional $1.5 billion, raising it to $6.5 billion. Thus far, $3.95 billion have been allocated to fund managers.
The other eight fund managers that were selected are: Avanda Investment Management, Fullerton Fund Management, JP Morgan Asset Management, Amova Asset Management (formerly Nikko Asset Management), BlackRock, Eastspring Investments, Lion Global Investors, and Manulife Investment Management.
According to the MAS, the next batch of fund managers to be appointed under the EQDP is expected to be announced in mid-2026.
