UOB Asset Management (UOBAM), the asset management arm of local bank United Overseas Bank (UOB) U11 , is constantly on a transformation journey.
The way the group sees it, transformation is necessary for it to maintain its core purpose: To create value for investors, partners and communities, and to help them achieve their goals and aspirations — and vision to be a trusted asset manager in Asia, leading in innovation and sustainability.
Established in 1986, UOBAM has since transformed into an industry-leading asset manager. The group has been steadfast in its alignment to a number of principles, namely keeping customers at the centre of everything it does; embracing its Asian heritage and Asean roots; focusing on sustainability by investing in both profit and purpose; as well as leveraging on technology and innovation across the entire organisation.
While the group is aware that it has to keep up with times and stay competitive, transformation is necessary for it to attract new cohorts of investors by adapting to their needs and interests.
“UOBAM is part of the long-established and highly-respected UOB group, but strong parentage alone is not enough for us to retain our customers’ trust. We must also ensure that our customers are at the core of what we do. This means our transformation is not one, but many journeys aimed at adapting and innovating to remain relevant to our customers, and staying ahead of the big trends affecting people’s lives,” says UOBAM CEO Thio Boon Kiat.
UOBAM is dedicated to “grow with its investors” as they move through their life stages by ensuring that it has the right solutions to meet the changing needs of its investors. To this end, UOBAM provides forward-looking solutions to its investors to allow them to capitalise on short-term market opportunities and longerterm megatrends.
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“UOBAM offers a wide range of single-asset and multi-asset solutions to cater to a spectrum of investors from mass retail to institutional. We recognise that our investors’ objectives interests do change over time, either because of personal circumstances such as an individual’s different life stages, or because of changes in the external environment, such as climate change or high inflation. As their partner for the long term, it is our responsibility to understand the investment priorities and challenges that our customers face, and to offer them viable and relevant solutions,” says Thio.
Of course, to achieve such a huge feat, UOBAM will require a dedicated and trustworthy team, as well as some of the latest technology to help drive it to the next level. One of the group’s priority is keeping adequate resources to scale effectively and to stay ahead of the competition.
“It is not enough to have good ideas. The challenge for asset managers like ourselves is to put ideas into practice in a way that benefits from economies of scale but also consistency and reliability. Take, for example, the trend of launching ESG funds. Doing this properly requires a lot of additional resources and expertise, so there is no point in only doing this to launch a few ESG funds. From the start, we realised that we would have to embrace sustainable investing as an organisation and apply a similar ESG ratings framework to all our funds, not just those with an ESG label,” says Thio.
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Road to excellence
With over 37 years of experience as a leading Asian fund manager, UOBAM’s success is underpinned by three key pillars: Using technology to democratise wealth, investing for both purpose and profit, as well as constantly having ears on the ground.
“UOBAM has been able to deliver strong performances by ensuring our key pillars are entrenched within the firm. For example, we spent several years developing sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and environmental, social and governance (ESG)-based security selection models. But what is as important is how we apply this consistently across all our markets and to guide all our analysts,” says Thio.
Under its first pillar, which puts UOBAM’s digital-first commitment at the forefront, the asset management firm embraces the concept of “augmented intelligence”, a unique human-centred partnership model of people and AI working together.
In this sense, the firm’s robo-advisory platform UOBAM Invest provides both retail and corporate investors with customised portfolios that are uniquely tailored to investors’ risk tolerance, investment horizons, financial profile and goals.
UOBAM Invest was launched in 2018 by the firm for corporates to manage their investments. This was the first robo-advisor launched for corporate investors in Singapore. This service was subsequently introduced to retail investors in July 2020.
Its second pillar ensures that sustainability is at the core of its investing strategies, as it believes that investors are now laser-focused on the ESG aspects of their investments. UOBAM began ESG integration in 2017. In January 2020, it was one of the first Asian asset managers to become a United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) signatory.
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This effort did not go unnoticed, as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) commented that UOBAM has taken “meaningful steps” in 2019 to expand their ESG teams and capabilities in ESG investments, disclosure and stewardship.
Some milestones under this pillar include the launch of its first sustainable bond fund in 2020. The United Sustainable Credit Income Fund focuses on bonds from companies that are making progress against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In 2021, UOBAM launched the world’s first Asia Pacific Green REIT ETF, allowing investors to invest in quality green REITs across Asia Pacific with dividend yields. In the same year, UOBAM launched the first Singapore-focused ESG fund. The United Smart Sustainable Singapore Bond Fund aims to help individual and institutional investors contribute to the nation’s sustainability drive.
Last but not least, UOBAM’s third pillar keeps it the expert in investing in Asia. The Asia region can be a challenging and confusing region to invest in, especially as reliable data is often scarce or nuanced.
For example, Deloitte estimates that 76% of Southeast Asian bonds maturing in 2020 were unrated. Similarly, company data made available by Asia-based corporates is often less extensive than their Western counterparts.
With its eyes and ears constantly on the ground across Asia, UOBAM is able to draw on 90 UOBAM investment professionals and internal or partner-based coverage of all Asian markets including Vietnam, China, Japan and Taiwan. This gives the firm its local expertise and regional perspective.
“UOBAM’s core expertise is in Asia and specifically in Asean, based on our locally-embedded investment teams. We believe this expertise allows us to uncover hidden investment gems within a corporate environment that is high growth but still relatively opaque. This is especially the case given our commitment to directly engage with companies on issues relating to long-term profit and sustainability,” says Thio.
Moving forward
UOBAM’s evolution over the years to become one of Asia’s leading asset managers has led to it to become one of the most awarded fund managers in Singapore, with over 3,000 awards won regionally since 1986.
UOBAM kicked off 2023 with multiple wins regionally at the Asia Asset Management Best of the Best Awards, clinching Best Asset Management House in Asia (20 years), Best Application of ESG in Asean, Best ESG Manager (Brunei and Thailand), Best Sukuk Manager (Brunei), Best Digital Wealth Management in Asia and Thailand (third consecutive win). UOBAM was also conferred Outstanding Achiever Award for Singapore Fixed Income at the Benchmark Fund of the Year Awards 2022.
“It is indeed a source of great satisfaction for myself and my team to receive these awards, especially the award for the Best Asset Management House in Asia (20 years). While product awards come and go, this award is particularly valued and meaningful as it recognises UOBAM’s ability to stay relevant to investors over 20 years, especially when so much has changed over these two decades. This award is also an acknowledgement of UOBAM’s very long-standing and deep roots within Asia, and our willingness to step into the unknown and take the lead on digital and ESG innovations, driven by a team of professionals who deeply understand their local markets,” says Thio.
In the next phase of its development UOBAM aims to tie together its three strategic pillars into a seamless whole. For example, by combining technology and local investment knowledge, UOBAM will be able to launch more AI-enabled Asian portfolios and locally-customised robo-platforms. Similarly, UOBAM’s knowledge of local entities allows for a better understanding of their ESG credentials, and therefore presents the greatest potential for alpha.
UOBAM also looks forward to more product innovations by leveraging its three pillars. Already, it has launched several first-in-the-industry products, such as the Asia Pacific Green REIT ETF and United Smart Sustainable Bond Fund. The firm intends to remain at the forefront of launching relevant products to the market.
