Singapore offers best options for ‘Qatar, Mideast investors’

Singapore offers best options for ‘Qatar, Mideast investors’Published: Friday, 25 May, 2007, 01:33 PM Doha Time

By Pratap John

Fernandez (right) and Ong speaking to Gulf Times yesterday
DOHA: Investors from Qatar and the Middle East have growing opportunities in Singapore, which offers a diverse range of financial products, a senior official from the city state has said.
Singapore’s bond, equity, derivatives and commodities markets and asset management and insurance portfolios can be very attractive for the region’s investors, according to Angelina Fernandez, director (Communications) of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Islamic investors have the option of picking up Shariah-compliant products, especially in the equity market, she told Gulf Times yesterday.
“Qataris and other regional investors with investable surplus can look for rewarding opportunities in Singapore. Their investments will be secure in the city state’s well-regulated environment,” said Fernandez, who was on a short business tour in Qatar.
Assets under management (AUM) in Singapore totalled S$720bn at the end of 2005. AUM has grown five fold since 1998. Over 80% of the assets managed are sourced from outside the city state.
Singapore has over 100 hedge fund managers, she pointed out.
Singapore’s bond market has had a five fold growth since 1996, Fernandez said. The outstanding amount of corporate bonds stood at S$137bn as of December 2005.
In the equity market, Singapore has as many as 715 companies listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), which has a market capitalisation of over S$662bn, as of March 2007. Foreign companies account for 33% of listings.
Some 16 real estate investment trusts worth S$25bn have been listed on the SGX as of March 2007, she said.
Fernandez said Singapore is the second largest over the counter (OTC) derivatives centre in Asia. It is the eighth largest warrant trading centre in the world with some 435 warrants listed on the SGX with a trading volume of S$142mn as of March 2006.
In the commodities market, Singapore is one of the world’s top oil refining centres, top bunker port and the Asia-Pacific centre for the pricing and trading of oil and rubber. About 20% of the world’s physical oil trade and half of the world’s rubber trade is done out of Singapore.
As many as 16 of the top 25 reinsurers are based in Singapore, which is now Asia’s reinsurance hub. The number of direct insurers is 71. It is also the largest Asia-Pacific domicile for captive insurance companies.
Fernandez who was accompanied by her colleague, Jacqueline Ong, said Singapore is also a major private banking centre in Asia.
“Our socio-political stability, sound economic fundamentals and the well-regulated financial sector make us an attractive location for wealth management,” she said.
Asia is rapidly growing in private wealth with the Asia–Pacific market estimated to grow at 7% a year to reach $10.6tn by 2010, according to a Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report. A better economic outlook is prompting foreign investors to allocate a larger portion of their portfolios to Asia.
Quoting a World Bank report Fernandez said, “It takes an entrepreneur just over six working days to get a new business going in Singapore, with low start-up costs. Overall, taking into account other factors, including business licensing, taxes, credit legal rights and investor protection, Singapore has about the most business-friendly regulation in the world.”