Citi has been appointed by BEA Union Investment Management (BEA Union Investment) as fund custodian and administrator for its first mutual fund restructure comprising five funds into an open-ended fund company (OFC) structure.
Citi has been providing custody and fund services including fund accounting, transfer agency and foreign exchange share class hedging to BEA Union Investment since 2013.
An OFC is a legal structure for Hong Kong domiciled funds with variable capital that can be used for both traditional and alternative funds.
Citi has been active in the OFC space and has been providing custody and fund administration services to OFCs since the regime was launched by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission in July 2018.
David Russell, Asia Pacific head of securities services and Hong Kong markets head at Citi, comments: “We are honored that BEA Union Investment has selected Citi for its inaugural OFC fund restructure.”
“We have been able to provide custody and fund services to OFC funds since their inception and we continue to invest in our custody franchise to meet the needs of our institutional clients.”
Eleanor Wan, CEO of BEA Union Investment, says: “We are undertaking our first ever fund structure conversion from unit trusts to an OFC as we are committed to ensuring that our investment vehicles are structured in the most efficient manner and well-positioned for market development.”
Wan adds: “It is also a move to support the government’s initiative to facilitate Hong Kong as an asset management hub. Citi as a custodian has unparalleled experience in this field and is, therefore, a natural partner.”
In March, Citi was appointed as the custodian for the launch of Mirae Asset Global Investments’ (Hong Kong) two OFC exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
