Rehan Ahmed

Cross Capital Invested in Gobi Partners ’ Flagship Fund, Establishing a Strategic Partnership ■About the partnership We are thrilled to announce our LP investment in Gobi Partners’ “MERANTI ASEAN GROWTH FUND II” through Cross Capital I Limited Partnership (CC1). This marks the establishment of a strategic partnership aimed at fostering cross-border innovation and collaboration. Through this partnership, Cross Capital aims to leverage Gobi Partners’ extensive network and expertise to bridge the growth opportunities in Asia with the business collaboration and investment needs of its Japanese corporate LPs. This alliance will further strengthen Gobi Partners’ mission to drive cross-border innovation while fostering deeper connections between Japanese enterprises and Southeast Asia’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. ■About Cross Capital Cross Capital is dedicated to “unlocking Japan’s potential through the power of cross-border innovation.” It operates a Japan-focused open innovation infrastructure leveraging a fund-of-funds structure. Corporate LPs participating in Cross Capital’s initiatives gain access to over 1,800 startups backed by top-tier VCs, while receiving end-to-end support, including: ・Defining collaboration themes ・Identifying and selecting partners ・Business planning ・Engaging startups ・PoC execution and business launch Additionally, Cross Capital facilitates capability-building through personnel exchange programs. Refer to our press release (https://lnkd.in/g_FsXvyS) and website for further details! Takaki Nakamura | Fumito Takashima | Thomas G. Tsao | Jamaludin Bujang | Suryono Darnor #CrossCapital #OpenInnovation #Japan #FoF

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"Whatever company you invest in today, you want to make sure that it will still be here four, five, six, seven years from now." Esther Wong, Founder & CIO of 3Capital Investment, in a conversation with Bloomberg's Venus Feng at the #BBGWealth.

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Last week, our Founder Esther Wong speaking at hashtag #bloombergwealthforum about 3C AGI Partners' investment philosophy. 1) We are still in the beginning of the new wave, we will focus on the picks and shovels, hence, AI Infrastructure for now. 2) Unlike mobile internet era, the technical moat to understand and discern AI companies are high, AI veterans enjoy unfair advantage as investors. 3) We are seeing disruptors on hardware side already. The average GPU is running at 50% efficiency, we need new inferencing solution and/or better chip design that tailors to model training and edge inferencing. We invested in Cerebras Systems for precisely this reason. 4) Most radical applications likely to be medical and education. AI being a great equalizer, both segment share great inequalities for now, hence significant market potential. 5) Both US and China will remain AI super power and companies will thrive in their respective unique ecosystem. 6) Eventually, the most important programming language will be English, and the marginal cost of intelligence will be zero, leading to a significant bigger overall AI led market opportunity than we currently define.

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abrdn Asian Income Fund Limited is an investment company that offers the prospect of both capital and income growth and could be considered a core offering for investors seeking diversification through #Asian equity exposure. Hear from Edison's Milosz Papst and Yoojeong Oh, CFA, one of the fund's managers, as they explore the potential opportunity in Asia. For more on emerging markets, read our latest report: https://lnkd.in/eaPgvTrc #EM #emergingmarkets #asia abrdn Investment Trusts

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Introducing the Lion-OCBC Securities APAC Financials Dividend Plus ETF — which distributes quarterly payouts of 5% p.a.* of the Issue Price for the first 2 years. Diversify your portfolio across the banking, insurance, and investments sectors with access to the top 30 financial institutions across the region. Diversify your portfolio to capitalise on the growth potential of APAC's financial giants and earn stable dividends**.   Start investing via OCBC Securities, OCBC ATMs, mobile and online banking***, iFAST Corporation Ltd., Maybank Investment Banking Group, PhillipCapital, and Tiger Brokers Singapore.   ^The company’s business sector must be classified as “Banking, Insurance, Investment Services, or Specialty Finance & Services”, as defined by FactSet’s Revere Business Industry Classification System (RBICS).  *As set out in the prospectus, the minimum payout of 5% per annum is only for the first 2 years. Distributions are not guaranteed. Please refer to lionglobalinvestors.com for more information on the income disclosures.  **Distributions are not guaranteed and may be made up of income, capital gains, and/or capital.  ***Buy within the Initial Offer Period (IOP) by 2 May 2024, 12PM where the application fee of S$2 has been waived with a minimum subscription quantity of 2,000 units. T&Cs apply.   #LionGlobalInvestors #OCBC #OCBCSecurities #iOCBC #SGX #APACFinancialsDividendsPlusETF #ETF #Dividends

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HKEX REACHES AGREEMENT WITH SSE AND SZSE TO EXPAND SCOPE OF ELIGIBLE ETFS UNDER STOCK CONNECT Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is pleased to announce on Friday that it has reached an agreement with Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) and Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) to expand the scope of eligible exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under Stock Connect. The eligibility criteria for ETFs for both Northbound and Southbound trading, including the assets under management requirement and the index weighting requirements, will be relaxed to support the continued development of the mutual market access programme. This expansion will further enrich investment options and enable Stock Connect investors to allocate assets in both Hong Kong and Mainland China markets in an efficient and cost-effective way. Further details of the expansion can be found in the circular published by HKEX today. The three exchanges will work closely on the business and technical preparations for the expansion, which is expected to take effect approximately three months from the date of this announcement. #ETF #StockConnect #HKEX #SSE #SZSE

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A big thank you to DealStreetAsia and Andi Haswidi for featuring our Deputy CIO & Managing Director, Private Investments, Eddie Ong, in the Private Equity in SE Asia: H1 2024 Review report. In the report, Eddie highlighted that a Fed rate cut is expected to have a highly positive impact on #APAC markets. Lower rates are likely to encourage capital seeking growth to move to more attractive regions such as Asia. The narrowing of the interest rate differential between the US and Asia will result in increased inflows into Asian currencies and markets – boosting liquidity. From a private credit standpoint, relative returns of Asia private credit against US private credit will likely increase. From a private equity standpoint, Southeast Asian companies will benefit from lower US rates. This, coupled with governments’ growth-oriented policies, a rapidly expanding middle class, and Southeast Asia’s position as an alternative manufacturing center outside of China will stimulate greater consumption demand and higher asset prices. In the asynchronous economies of APAC, #SeaTown leverages the cycle-tested operating experience of our seasoned team to help LPs capitalise on compelling investment opportunities, no matter the broader economic cycle.  #Alternatives #PrivateEquity #PrivateCredit

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🌐 How are bank business models evolving? We're going to take a leap into the future with Kelvin Tan, the visionary lead of audax. He'll take the stage on May 16 and we're already curious to hear Kelvin's insights and story of plug-and-play transformation in the banking ecosystem. 🏦 100+ happy employees on Kelvin's LinkedIn cover photo reveal a lot! audax is about courage – the courage to push frontiers, defy the norm, and embrace the unconventional. The company's guiding light is the belief that innovation thrives on audacity, and with audax, you're not just choosing our digital banking solutions – you're choosing a fearless partner ready to explore new horizons. 🌟 Kelvin's keynote at the Nordic Fintech Summit will take us into the evolving banking business models, examining the roles of digital banks and the integration of embedded finance to redefine the financial landscape. With his finger on the pulse of cutting edge tech, his insights at the summit will spotlight the potential of 'super banks' as pivotal economic hubs. 📅 Join us for a day going into the future of banking at the #NordicFintechSummit on May 16, 2024, in Helsinki. 🔗 Check the full agenda and secure your tickets early - link in the comments. 👀 There are 2 partner spots left. #DigitalBanking #DigitalPayments #HelsinkiFintech #EmbeddedFinance

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“This process has started in Hong Kong, and some virtual banks will grow and strengthen their brand,” says Barbaros Uygun 胡博思of Mox Bank. “These winners will mature into sizeable franchises and become primary banks.” Ugyun is too polite to say it out loud, but he's obviously confident Mox will be such a winner. This profile is from a series of DigFin Group CEO interviews at virtual banks asking them how they intend to become primary banks, that is, the place where customers place the bulk of their deposits. So far the numbers are actually not that good, with deposits falling and deposit sizes plummeting among the eight licensed digital banks in Hong Kong. Mox is the successful outlier in terms of customer numbers but it will still need to translate that into the kind of step changes that boosted the likes of Revolut, Nubank or KakaoBank – in an era when capital has become expensive. Calvin Ng 费轶明 Michael Fei Tat Lee Alex Manson Trust Bank Singapore Priscilla Wat Edwin Hui, CFA Jayant Bhatia Eric Wan https://lnkd.in/gRZCRCmR

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SGX Group derivatives trading hit a new record of 3.24 million contracts in equities, FX, and commodities—surpassing the previous high of 2.96 million in April 2022. 🙌 📰 In an exclusive interview, our Director of Commodities and Dealing, Benjamin Yeo, shed light on the factors driving this surge. Key highlights include: - Macroeconomic & Geopolitical Factors: Increased volatility, central bank actions, and geopolitical uncertainties are major contributors. - Growing Market Participation: Institutional investors, proprietary trading firms, and retail traders are leveraging derivatives to hedge against risks and optimise portfolios. - Education for Retail Investors: Futures contracts provide powerful tools for managing exposure to market risks, and at Phillip Nova, we remain committed to empowering our clients with knowledge and resources. Now is a prime opportunity for investors to leverage these powerful tools for managing market risks. For investors holding stocks, derivatives such as equity index futures can be highly effective in hedging against market downturns. As Benjamin Yeo illustrated in the article, for example, to protect a Singapore stock portfolio from a potential decline, investors can sell SiMSCI futures contracts. By doing so, any losses in the stock portfolio can be offset by gains from the futures contracts, offering a safeguard against a drop in market value. At Phillip Nova, we’re seeing increased trading activity across institutional investors, proprietary trading firms, and even retail traders. Now is the time to explore how derivatives can be a key part of your investment strategy. 🔗 Read more about this milestone and insights from Benjamin Yeo in Lianhe Zaobao 联合早报’s full article here https://lnkd.in/gZVYNZk9 #Derivatives #SGX #PhillipNova #Trading #RiskManagement #MarketInsights #FX #Commodities #Equities

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Our Managing Director for Private Credit, Wei Hsien Chan, was recently at the AIMA-ACC APAC Credit Refresh pre-forum, where he discussed with his fellow panelists on “𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡”. Thank you AIMA - The Alternative Investment Management Association, Alternative Credit Council and State Street for having us. Below are some takeaways 👇 1️⃣  In Asia, private credit is not about funds competing with banks. Direct lenders provide funding to corporates that are unable to access the bank market, largely due to regulatory, structural or market factors. 2️⃣ At SeaTown’s private credit, we provide loans to both PE-sponsored and non-sponsor transactions, across developed and emerging Asia. Competition is generally higher in the sponsor space because of the entrance into Asia of global managers capable of writing billion-dollar cheques. However, what we have observed is that most of these fund managers are largely comfortable with vanilla structures in developed Asia. In the non-sponsor space, particularly in emerging Asia, the market is still heavily fragmented and there are only a small group of fund managers capable of writing cheques over $100m and able to offer a range of flexible terms. To be able to address both these segments, managers need to have a meaningful AUM for scale, an experienced investment team and investment committee comfortable with developed and emerging Asia, and a broad ecosystem to tap for origination and due diligence. 3️⃣ We believe that lower interest rates will increase the relative attractiveness of Asian private credit versus US/Europe as non-sponsor loans in Asia are mostly fixed-rate and have not increased as much as US base rates in recent years, so we expect them to go down less when US rates drop. 4️⃣ New technologies like AI can help with deal screening and market analysis but for private companies, particularly in emerging Asia where there is a shortage of reliable standardized, detailed, publicly available company and industry data, there is no substitute for old fashioned due diligence. What are your observations about the Asian private credit market? #PrivateCredit #Asia #Alternatives #SeaTown

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HKEX is pleased to be launching a fund repository on its Integrated Fund Platform (IFP), enhancing transparency for SFC-authorised funds and supporting the long-term growth of Hong Kong’s asset management industry.   HKEX Co-Head of Markets, Glenda So, said: “By providing easier access to fund information, the Fund Repository will help investors make informed fund investment decisions and enable market participants to serve their clients more effectively. HKEX is committed to facilitating the development of an efficient, diverse and vibrant fund distribution ecosystem, bolstering Hong Kong’s position as a global wealth management hub.”   For more information, please visit the IFP Fund Repository: https://ifp.hkex.com.hk/

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Siam Commercial Bank restructured in 2022, deconstructing the Thai financial institution into twelve companies beneath a new holding company called SCBX. For one of those twelve entities, SCB 10x, the restructuring was business as usual. It had been running since 2020 with a mission to invest, incubate, and research new technologies that the group could incorporate. If anything, according to the unit’s CEO, Mukaya Tai Panich, the group is even more determined to transform itself into a digital entity. “Before, we were incorporated outside of the bank,” she said. “And we still are, only now we are one of 12 such companies.” Her job at SCB 10x is divided between corporate venture capital, and venture building, which encompasses a Labs unit that carries out technical research to support the VC’s portfolio companies. Broadly, SCB 10x is focusing on artificial intelligence and blockchain. #blockchain #artificialintelligence #scb10x

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💥 Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, shared plans to gradually enhance the liquidity pool to fund commodities market transactions through Tether Investments. By 2026, the pool could reach $5 billion. Details at: https://lnkd.in/dKyxPzkA 💥 Hong Kong launched two initiatives that will stimulate the development of the local digital asset sphere — subsidizing the issuance of tokenized bonds and tax incentives for institutional investors. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dEiDHrJ8 💥 LianLian Global, China’s largest FinTech platform for cross-border payment processing, announced the launch of Yueda Card, a B2B payment product for SMEs on Visa’s global network. Read more at: https://lnkd.in/dMP9mHrn

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HKEX Confirms Plans to Reduce Tick Sizes in Securities Market Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) will proceed with its proposal to reduce minimum spreads of equities, REITs, and equity warrants in two phases. https://lnkd.in/dmzYUdu9

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A better way to invest — the Endowus Employee Platform Solution enables fund management companies to provide their employees with access to their own full range of funds including employee share classes. “Ironically, employees of fund management companies may not have easy access to their employer’s funds. They often have to resort to regular distribution channels like brokerages or banks, investing in trailer-heavy retail share lasses of their own company’s funds.” - Samuel Rhee, Chairman and CIO of Endowus. A massive thank you to Asian Private Banker for featuring us and speaking in depth on our latest B2B endeavour. Read more here: https://hk.endw.us/3Li2mY6 Investment involves risk. Past performance is not an indicator nor a guarantee for future performance. Projected performance is not guaranteed. Please refer to our full disclaimer at https://sg.endow.us/mas. #EndowusSG #EndowusHK #CorporateInvestmentSolutions #InvestBetter

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