While Lim declined to name any specific stocks citing policy, the Barings Eastern Trust he manages had US-listed shares of Singapore’s Sea Ltd., an online gaming-to-shopping firm, among its top holdings at the end of May, according to its latest fact sheet. Barings Eastern, with the equivalent of US$168 million ($232 million) in assets, has beaten 96% of its peers with a 23% return this year, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.
SooHai Lim is bullish on e-commerce in Southeast Asia, so much so that he sees the region coming up with its own version of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated penetration rates of e-commerce in Southeast Asia and the region has become one of the key growth areas for such a business, according to the head of Asia ex-China equities at Barings, which manages about $346 billion globally.
