Following a strategic review of its business, APS Asset Management will become a «China house» that will «live, breathe and think China.»
APS Asset Management will be exiting other Asian markets and returning funds to its customers, as going forward, it will dedicate all its resources to focus on its core market – China, the $2.4-billion Singapore-based firm said in a letter posted on its website on Tuesday.
«We at APS want to be part of this astonishing human drama and believe that our odds of success in investing in it are much better if we totally immerse ourselves in understanding the challenges and opportunities in China as it rises,» the letter said.
APS has already made managerial changes to allow founder and chief investment officer Wong Kok Hoi to focus more time on investments specifically within China, the firm said.
China Track Record
APS started as a joint venture in 1995 with Shanghai Investment Securities, then China's largest investment bank. APS was also one of the earliest offshore managers to establish a research presence in China in 2002, launching its China A-share fund two years later. It now has three research offices in the country: Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.
APS' client base has shifted in tandem with China's meteoric growth in the past two decades, and its underlying investment exposure in China currently exceeds 90 percent of assets under management, the firm said.
Most of the firm's assets are concentrated in long-only China-focused funds. According to «Bloomberg,» this strategy gained 33.1 percent in 2019 and has delivered an annualized return of 17.8 percent since inception.
