Asia is at forefront of Acadian Asset Management’s private-wealth push: CEO

[SINGAPORE] Fund managers have increasingly turned to Asia’s private-wealth pool as a new source of capital, but quant manager Acadian Asset Management is doing things slightly differently.

“Asia has been (at) the forefront of our wealth strategy,” Kelly Young, CEO of Acadian told The Business Times.

The US-headquartered fund manager is looking to tap the growing market of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) in Asia and sate investor demand for more boutique products that offer access to more institutional products, she noted.

Contrary to other asset managers who launch their strategy in their home market first, Acadian’s roll-out in the region is about 12 to 18 months ahead of its US office.

“We’re using Asia as the blueprint to roll that out across the globe,” said Young.

Acadian is a quant fund that utilises models to track listed companies, with conventional and unconventional data – such as weather patterns and satellite imagery – being fed to the model to determine whether the fund manager should invest, divest or hold onto a stock.

The firm is bucking another trend as well: When compared with other fund managers based in America, it has more international and emerging-market products rather than US-centric products.

It also expanded into Asia first, opening an office in Singapore in 1999, rather than choosing Europe which is the typical overseas path for most fund managers in the US.

Based on assets under management (AUM), around 51 per cent of Acadian’s current client mix comes from the US, while 49 per cent is non-US.

Asia-Pacific AUM was US$31.7 billion as at Mar 31, 2026, an increase of 16.2 per cent from the prior year. The firm’s total AUM stood at US$195.7 billion as at Mar 31.

“It’s a long-held goal of ours to get close to 50-50 in terms of the AUM split. It highlights the commitment we have to the non-US business, of which Asia is a really important piece,” noted Young.

With a product portfolio with more international and emerging-markets exposure, Acadian’s long-term funds are more suited for private wealth outside of the US. This, coupled with the growing wealth in Asia, naturally made Singapore – its regional headquarters – the choice for the firm’s wealth efforts.

“We feel that the strategies we have in place today work well for the part of the wealth segment we are targeting,” its CEO added.

Currently private wealth makes up about 25 per cent of AUM for Acadian. Its typical clients are institutional investors, with a number of central banks giving it a mandate since it started operations in Singapore 27 years ago.

George Koh, director for wholesale markets at Acadian Asset Management Singapore, said that the private-wealth sector in Asia has reached a point where private banks are looking to differentiate their product offerings, as the products available have become quite commoditised.

With private-wealth clients keen to build or manage their portfolios like institutional investors, and diversify their portfolios with a range of asset classes, Acadian is fielding more inbound inquiries about its product offerings.

“We’ve seen this sort of evolution over the last few years, where sophistication has increased; these folks are becoming more discerning about what they are looking for,” observed Young.

Education over distribution

Acadian is thus focusing on educating the fund allocators and private banks, rather than just rolling out its funds for HNWIs.

Francis Seah, managing director of Acadian Asset Management Singapore, noted that the onus is on the firm to educate the new group of investors looking to place their money with Acadian.

Quant, since it relies on computer models, has also been helped in part by artificial intelligence becoming mainstream.

Seah added that, in Acadian’s early days in Singapore, Asian investors were more familiar with “stock pickers” – fund managers who choose stocks based on their interactions with the company’s management.

Quant funds were less understood and seen as a black box, with investors in the region not knowing how data that is fed to a computer model can determine whether to buy, sell or hold a stock.

“In terms of the roll out of the wealth channel, we haven’t actually focused on commercialisation in the first six to 12 months. A lot of work has been on the education front,” said Seah.

Young noted: “It’s been demystified in a world where everyone is now quite comfortable with an AI agent telling them that there’s a table at this restaurant, or they are using AI.”

In “growth mode”

Acadian has been in “growth mode”, said Young, with new hires in Asia to tap the growing wealth markets. She added, however, that there are no specific hiring goals.

The firm is also doubling down on and reinvesting in its core institutional business.

Acadian has about 20 employees in Singapore and has recently hired three new people. Among them is Wang Sheau-Yien, who is director of South-east Asia sales. She was previously head of South-east Asia institutional business at Lombard Odier.

It helps that the Singapore office’s growth plans are supported by the top executive management team.

Young said: “We’re seeing real interest in wealth, and still seeing strong growth on the institutional side. We want to make sure that as we are increasing our client base, that we continue to deliver a very high level of service.”

Acadian has withstood a few financial crises since its inception in 1986 using its model, and the CEO noted that its performance has held up so far. The firm has recorded 3.4 per cent in asset-weighted excess returns of clients’ benchmarks on an annualised five-year basis as at Mar 31, 2026.

The next 12 months will see Acadian focus on expanding geographically and by asset class, as well as building up its private-wealth business.

In particular, the wealth business will mean building up capabilities, distribution and partnerships, noted Young.

“If we can execute effectively on those three, that’s going to lead to sustainable and diversified growth, and that will set us on a positive path.”