Singapore is drawing more global wealth than ever and UBS, as one of the largest wealth managers around, is riding this trend nicely. “In the past, for every dollar that we received in new assets, 75 cents would go to Hong Kong and 25 cents would go to Singapore,” says Edmund Koh, president of UBS APAC. “Now, it is 50:50.”
However, this is not a result of Hong Kong-based funds fleeing, but rather, due to the “phenomenal” growth of Southeast Asian companies and the region’s potential as an inexpensive economic alternative to China, says Koh. “It is the growth within Southeast Asia itself that has pivoted and driven the growth of wealth management in Singapore… China today is expensive if you are a foreign investor. Within Southeast Asia, you can still pick from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia [and more]. Malaysia is at a huge discount, for example,” he says.
