Investment funds in Singapore

The Asian market has very good prospects in terms of investment; one of the main players in this region is United States of America. An investment fund is comprised of the shared capital the investors are willing to invest; the decision to invest in a certain business is taken by measuring the risk factors and the financial outcomes; our lawyers in Singapore can offer you more details on this subject.

 

 

There are several types of investment funds, differentiated by the strategy they follow and by the investment mechanism they choose to apply. You can ask for consultation from our law firm in Singapore, in case you are interested to invest in this type of financial structure. 

 

As such, you can choose to invest in one of the following structures:

 

• mutual funds represent a collection of smaller funds collected from investors who want to invest in stocks, bonds and similar titles;

• exchange traded funds deal with assets such as shares of stocks, gold bars or foreign currency;

• money market funds are drawn with the purpose of gaining capital for the shareholders; a share must have a value of minimum $1; 

• hedge funds are usually set up as a limited partnerships; each fund of this type has a different strategy to invest, but they have the same purpose, namely to maximize the return on investment. 

 

 

Singapore has become an important market for investment funds and, as such, the Singaporean government has made recent changes to the Companies Act, which offers business transparency and flexibility for such business types. 

 

The government has also extended three funds schemes, which will be applicable until March 2019:

 

• offshore fund incentive scheme- the government will offer tax exemption on the income as long as the fund manager is not a Singaporean resident and he doesn’t own any companies in Singapore; if he has a business here, he is not allowed to use the capital of the company to invest in the fund;

• resident fund incentive scheme – it offers to the Singapore funds the same taxation exemptions applicable to the offshore fund; the fund must be represented by a company in Singapore;

• enhanced tier fund incentive scheme – there are no restrictions regarding the nationality of the investors; it also provides lesser restrictions regarding the incorporation process or the residence of the fund. 

 

If you need further information on the legislation on the investment funds, please contact our law firm in Singapore, where you can receive the relevant details according to your business plan.