“The Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”), widely regarded as the gold standard of regulators in the region, has worked hard to attract in excess of 1,016 locally based, licensed and or registered asset management companies and a network of professional service providers to support them”

“The introduction of the VCC signals the growth of Singapore from a predominantly asset management center, to a leading onshore international fund domiciliation hub. Providing a world class fund framework, allows for vertical integration with fund management activities, fund servicing and fund domiciliation, all in the same locale”

“The introduction of the VCC will provide asset managers such as Gordian Capital with more options for fund structuring and the flexibility to provide onshore products utilising Singapore’s robust regulatory framework, stable government, rule of law, deep service provider network, skilled workforce and ease of doing business”

“There are 1,016 licensed/regulated asset managers with physical operations and staff both located in and operating from Singapore providing real substance. Other fund hubs, by comparison, typically domicile thousands of funds but only have a relatively small number of managers onshore with a physical presence”

“Although competition amongst offshore and onshore centers will heat up, the outcome is not a binary one. The VCC is designed to complement existing structures and a Cayman Limited Partnership or a Luxembourg RAIF feeding into a VCC for investments into Asian private assets, for example, is one structure we could envisage with such outcomes always being driven by the needs of investors”

“Over time the VCC will position itself as the pooling vehicle of choice for both Asian investors and Asian assets”

“The limitations of existing Singapore domestic fund structures, have impeded growth in the (onshore) Singapore-domiciled fund industry; the introduction of the VCC aims to address those issues by combining the best of the two i.e. corporate tax treatment and the optionality and segregation benefits of a unit trust”

“Importantly, the VCC will allow investment funds domiciled abroad which are structured similarly to VCCS to be re-domiciled in Singapore with re-domiciliation being conducted through a simple registration process and allowing a foreign investment fund to retain its corporate history and identity”

“The end result is that managers and investors worldwide will be provided an additional robust, logical and future-proofed fund structure and domicile option to consider”

“Singapore is expected to become Asia’s dominant international fund domicile hub”