The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange is now open for business. It is backed by heavyweight investors including a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and a renowned investment guru.
At a time when traditional financial products are treading water, the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDiX) platform aims to standardise global trading in diamonds as an asset class and to unlock new investment opportunities for global investors.
In the near term, the Exchange aims to support a vibrant spot trading market, and as this matures the Exchange will offer more sophisticated products such as ETFs and derivatives that will further enhance the attractiveness of the platform for global investors.
The SDiX represents a tectonic shift in how diamonds are traded. By providing the first ever transparent and open price discovery mechanism for diamonds, the exchange unlocks a major opportunity for investors to trade diamonds as an asset class,» said Alain Vandenborre, Executive Chairman and Founder of the Exchange.
Significant Change
Until now, diamond trading has been dominated by manual bilateral trading in physical ‘marketplace’ style bourses. This centuries-old trading system gives buyers no transparency on the trading process and no access to pricing information, meaning that investors have not been able to engage in this market.
The launch of the exchange represents the most significant change in global diamond trading practices. The platform is designed to enable accredited investors to trade diamonds as an asset class for the first time by providing an independent, electronic, and regulation-ready global market that creates a transparent price discovery mechanism for diamonds. As a result, banks, financial firms and investors will for the first time have a benchmark price to value diamonds as an asset.
Partners and Investors
The SDiX is built on a fully integrated, regulation-ready ecosystem, and a global network of service providers that support the Exchange and its members with grading, vaulting and settlement. These include some of the leaders in the global diamond trading industry: GIA, the renowned diamond grading institute; leading vaulting and logistics provider Malca-Amit; and Standard Chartered Bank, which will provide banking services and facilitate the cash settlement of transactions.
SDiX is backed by leading global investors including Vertex Venture Holdings, one of the longest operating venture capital firms in Asia and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Early investors include investment guru and Singapore resident, Jim Rogers.
SDiX launches with broker members across Singapore, Hong Kong, London and Dubai. Trading hours are between 14:30PM SGT/ HKT and 18:30PM SGT/ HKT to allow global traders to take advantage of the SDiX platform.
