The asset manager wholly owned by OCBC Bank on Tuesday launched the LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold Fund, which tracks the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Gold Price AM, the morning benchmark set at 10:30 a.m. London time or 6:30 p.m. in Singapore, The Business Times reported.
The fund is backed one-to-one by investment-grade gold bars with a minimum fineness of 99.5%, in line with standards set by LBMA. Each bar is uniquely identifiable and held separately under the fund’s assets, with no exposure to gold derivatives.
The gold is securely vaulted at Le Freeport in Singapore, a high-security facility monitored around the clock, and is insured to its full value against loss, theft or damage both in custody and during transit.
The fund will be distributed through OCBC, MariBank Singapore, iFast, Great Eastern, POEMS and Singlife Group, with Standard Chartered Bank Singapore acting as custodian. It can be bought in either Singapore or U.S. dollars, depending on the share class.
The minimum investment amount is S$1 for the MariBank class.
“Mari Invest Gold is fundamentally designed to lower the barrier of entry for every retail investor. Our customers can start investing in gold for as low as S$1,” Huo Haiyan, MariBank’s head of retail business, said at the launch of the fund, as quoted by The Edge Singapore.
For non-MariBank investors, the minimum initial investment is S$1,000 or US$1,000. A 2% sales charge and 0.4% per annum management fee are applied to all classes. Investors can adjust their exposure in increments as small as S$100 or US$100.
The LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold Fund is currently ineligible for the CPF Investment Scheme, which lets members use a portion of their CPF savings to invest in approved funds. CPF is Singapore’s mandatory social security savings scheme that helps working citizens set aside funds for retirement, housing, healthcare and other purposes.
Over the last three years, gold prices have climbed from about US$2,000 per ounce to a record US$4,380 in mid-October before retreating to around US$4,100 per ounce.
Once considered a “doomsday asset,” gold is increasingly seen as a key component of a sensible investor’s strategy, according to Lee Meng Choe, executive director at GEN Financial Advisory.
“Gold plays the role of portfolio insurance, and similar to insurance, we buy because of need,” he said, as quoted by The Straits Times, adding that he usually recommends clients keep 5-10% of their net worth, excluding physical assets like property, in gold.
