A month on from appointing its local pioneer broker, the world’s only commodity exchange trading in physically settled diamonds, has announced further developments.

The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (SDiX) has announced that Linear Investments (Linear), an FCA-regulated investment manager and prime broker, has joined SDiX to provide its clients the opportunity to invest in diamonds as an asset class.

The new strategic partnership will unlock investment opportunities in diamonds as an asset class for accredited investors in the United Kingdom and European Union, through Linear’s electronic diamond trading arm Diamonex.

European Investors

SDiX offers new opportunities to trade in immobilized single stones and ‘baskets’ which are fungible collections of investment-grade diamonds. Both single stones and baskets can be traded electronically on a price/time priority in a continuous market, and buyers can place indicative price bids and offers by diamond category.

The introduction of Linear onto the SDiX platform, SDiX will be better able to offer all UK and European investors access to trade fungible, investment grade diamonds in a regulated environment.

All stones traded on SDiX are GIA-graded and buyers of single stones can examine certifications directly through the platform. All fungible baskets have an identical total carat weight, and, for each category, comprise an equal number of stones of identical cut, clarity and colour.

Sovereign Wealth Fund

«We welcome Linear Investments as the first European broker member to the platform, offering their clients access to this new and exciting asset class on the world’s first exchange for diamonds. At SDiX we are committed to stringent regulatory standards and full transparency, making FCA-regulated Linear an ideal partner for the Exchange in the European markets,» said Alain Vandenborre, Chairman and Founder of the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange, commented:

SDiX has been established to provide the only transparent price discovery mechanism for the global diamond trade, giving banks, financial firms and investors a benchmark price to value diamonds as an asset.

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.

Trading on the exchange is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2016.