The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

Lion Global Investors 
Yesterday, Lion Global Investors said that it will be listing an actively managed exchange-traded fund that draws on its investment capabilities. The ETF is listed in Singapore. 

The LionGlobal Short Duration Bond Fund, (Active ETDF SGD Class) will be listed on 29 September on the SGX. The “mother fund,” LionGlobal Short Duration Bond Fund (SDBF), has been incepted since 1991.

The fund aims to provide total return of capital growth and income over the medium to long term, through an actively managed portfolio of Singapore and international bonds, high-quality interest rate securities and other related securities. 

There is a target industry or sector, but Lion Global Investors said the fund will generally invest in bonds with investment grade quality and may also invest or expose the fund to sub-investment grade securities. 

The fund marks LGI’s ninth ETF and second active ETF. 

“LionGlobal Short Duration Bond Fund has a track record of strong performance since its inception in 1991, being one of our flagship bond funds,” Teo Joo Wah, CEO, Lion Global Investors, said. “This listed active ETF SGD Class is a notable addition to the LGI family of ETFs as investors continue to seek out cost-effective, income-producing strategies to help diversify their portfolios.”

Citing figures from Bloomberg, LGI said that active ETFs have taken in about 28 per cent of all flows into ETFs in 2025, as of 30 April 2025.

Note: LGI said the LionGlobal Short Duration Bond Fund is not like a typical unit trust offered to the public in Singapore. The fund comprises both classes of units listed as traded on the Singapore Exchange and classes of units which are neither listed on the SGX-ST nor on any other stock exchange.

RQI Investors
RQI Investors, an Australian-based global quantitative manager within the First Sentier Group, has launched its first quantitative investment strategy to Hong Kong’s retail investors â€“ the RQI Global Value Fund.

The fund is the latest vehicle of RQI Investors’ flagship Global Value Strategy, which has a 16-year track record. First launched in 2008, the strategy collectively manages $7 billion. It invests in about 700 stocks globally. The monthly distribution share classes are launched on the Hong Kong retail market.

“Following our successful launch of the RQI Investors’ Global Value Strategy in the UK, Europe, Canada and Singapore markets in May, we are pleased to offer a distinctive investment opportunity to investors in Hong Kong to help them capture the potential of regular income in three currencies – US dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Renminbi-hedged,” RQI Investors’ CEO, Andrew Francis, said.

“The Global Value Strategy is systematic, removing key person risk, is value-tilted and contrarian in its approach. It aims to provide a higher yield and lower valuations than the benchmark index, with effective diversification benefits from index investing. It captures the value cycle whilst avoiding the pitfalls of value investing – that is, avoiding value traps and stocks that are cheap for a reason. Its fees are highly competitive relatively and the outcomes have been top quartile over 10 years in the value universe and consistently outperformed the market over the long term.” 

The RQI Investors Global Value Strategy is globally managed by Dr Joanna Nash, Dr Ron Guido, and Dr Wang Chun Wei and head of investments, Dr David Walsh, each of whom have been with RQI Investors for about five years, and have over 15 years of financial service experience.

Artha Bharat Investment Managers
Artha Bharat Investment Managers, which says it is the first Category III AIF foreign portfolio investor to shift the domicile of its special situations fund from Mauritius to India’s GIFT City, is expanding into Abu Dhabi Global Markets.

The firm is in the process of establishing a presence in ADGM, a jurisdiction in which it sees opportunities to work with the Indian diaspora and capture institutional interest from sovereign and quasi-sovereign funds.

Artha Bharat plans to float feeder funds for non-US investors to channel capital into its strategies, it said in a statement yesterday.  

“The Middle East has one of the largest concentrations of Indian diaspora and has long been one of the key magnets driving inward remittances into India,” Sachin Sawrikar, managing partner, Artha Bharat Investment Managers, said. “We have also seen increased investments into India by sovereign funds such as Mubadala, Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority amongst others. To tap into the growing potential of HNI, family office and SWF across the GCC markets we are in the process of setting up operations in Abu Dhabi Global Markets.”

Having recently moved into a 2,300 sq ft leased office in GIFT City, the business has also opened an office in Dubai, with another of similar size being planned in ADGM. 

The feeder funds for non-US investors will convey capital into strategies, including:

-- Artha Global Opportunities Fund, a foreign distressed debt fund; 
-- Artha Global Multiplier Fund, a long-short hedge fund targeting US markets; and 
-- Artha Bharat Absolute Return Fund, a US dollar-denominated arbitrage fund investing across equities, commodities and interest rate futures. 

(A Category III AIF foreign portfolio investor refers to an investor resident outside India and from a country not sharing a land border with India, who invests in a Category III Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) under SEBI (Indian Securities and Exchange Board) regulations.)