TWO former senior employees of UOB Kay Hian Private Limited (UOBKH) were charged on Wednesday for allegedly lying to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in relation to reports on a then Catalist aspirant. Lan Kang Ming, 38, and Wee Toon Lee, 34, each face three charges of providing MAS with false information in October 2018 in relation to due diligence reports on an unidentified company applying to list on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. MAS said in a media statement on Wednesday that it was performing an onsite inspection of UOBKH between June and August 2018, to assess the latter's controls, policies and procedures in relation to its role as an issue manager for Initial Public Offering (IPOs). During the examination, Lan and Wee were said to have provided different versions of a due diligence report relating to background checks on a company applying to be listed on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange. UOBKH had acted as the issue manager
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By JAMIE LEE
20 July 2011
Most hedge funds turned in shoddy performances last month amid poor market conditions, figures from a European financial research centre EDHEC-Risk Institute showed.
Funds that took on a global commodity trading adviser (CTA) strategy fared the worst among its peers, losing 2.27 per cent in the month - the second consecutive month of negative returns - given the recent losses seen in the commodities market on the whole.
The performance of CTA funds in June, however, was better than that of May, during which the commodities focused funds posted a 3.39 per cent loss in returns.
Funds that rely on convertible arbitrage turned in their worst monthly performance so far this year with a 0.95 per cent loss, given the fall in value of convertible bonds.
Only funds that took on strategies of either short-selling or fixed income arbitrage came back with positive returns in June. Short-selling funds grew their returns by 2.99 per cent - posting its second consecutive positive return.
Fixed income arbitrage funds - or funds that assume opposing market positions to profit from small price discrepancies while watching its interest rate risk - recorded a gain of 0.05 per cent in their June returns.
On a year-to-date basis, fixed income arbitrage funds have also turned in the strongest numbers.
These funds - which can use swap-spread arbitrage that takes opposing long and short positions in a swap and a Treasury bond - posted a 4.5 per cent gain in returns since the start of the year.
Another fund type that did well was those picking up distressed securities.
Such funds gained 4.1 per cent in the six-month period. They also posted an 11.2 per cent annual average return since January 2011 - representing the second-strongest performance among the hedge funds after emerging market funds.
Funds that employ an equity market neutral strategy also stood out on a year-to-date basis.
Such funds, which can go long and short on stocks within the same sector or country as a hedging strategy, gained 2.6 per cent since the start of the year.
Their scorecard represents the best year-to-date performance among the equity-oriented strategies.