ABERDEEN Asset Management Asia Ltd, an independent asset management firm, is seeking to sell more of its products in Brunei.
Hugh Young, managing director, said in an exclusive interview that the firm has 14 unit trusts in Singapore that are authorised for sale in Singapore through private banks. “We are registering and authorising them here too, which would mean that we would be able to bring in more products to Brunei, so it would be easier to buy products through Standard Chartered Bank or HSBC even,” he said.
Young said the investment products that the firm wants to bring to Brunei will target the general investor. “Any investor with any income or anyone in particular can invest, so the investment’s not huge, and our products are fairly ‘plain vanilla’, so it’s the very basic, and they’re not structured products,” he said. He added that while the equity products that they offer are not overly-complicated, there is still a risk for investors of losing money.
“I think the risks and issues happen when people don’t understand what they’re buying and even worse is people selling things they don’t understand,” said Young. However, he said that the financial principles that bankers have now are probably much more disciplined than they were 10 to 20 years ago. “Hopefully people now aren’t trying to sell you to earn on the fees, but I think the financial community has become a lot more professional over the years, and back then the advise you could get from the financial community was actually very self-centred.”
Young recalled that a year ago, Brunei was still “very black”. “For the local customers, I wouldn’t say that they didn’t notice the crisis, but it wasn’t a crisis that impacted Brunei directly,” he said. He said last year’s crisis was “manageable” compared with the Asian financial crisis.
Latest by Debbie Too:
- BEDB projects come under spotlight
- 'Try not to see the money' If you don't want to spend it
- Peg to Singapore dollar stays
- Know your needs, wants: finance guru
- Combine standards to enter UK market
