Asia Wealth Management gearing up for greater challenges

Friday, 13 July 2012 05:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Asia Wealth Management (AWM), the specialist boutique investment advisor of the Asia Capital Group recently announced that the company is gearing itself to accept greater challenges and new business through a newly formed young and dynamic team of professionals.

The company announced that its research arm, which feeds in sell side research for the group’s stock broking company Asia Securities Limited, has diversified itself to service a wide spectrum of investors including foreign clients, high net worth individuals and retailers offering comprehensive monthly reports in sectors including banking and finance, motor, plantations and tiles. AWM also undertakes customised research on specialist projects for clients if needed.

AWM Assistant Manager of the Research Division Amali Perera said, “Sell side research is essential for brokers to promote stocks to potential buyers and a diversified team is essential since the set of skills required to service a retailer is vastly different to the skills needed to service a foreign investor. Our team comprises an economic research analyst, a quantitative analyst and several equity analysts, who produce corporate, monthly, weekly and daily reports in all three languages, which are also published on Bloomberg.”

The company’s corporate finance arm is at present building up a strong corporate finance team using Group opportunities since its parent company Asia Capital has private equity companies under its umbrella. The company is currently geared to handle mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, venture capital and other private equity related advisory work. The corporate finance arm handled the recently held IPO of Asia Asset Limited which was very successful post opening.

AWM Assistant Manager of the Corporate Finance Division Sunela Samaranayake said, “The corporate finance arm is a boutique transactions advisory unit that did a lot of work for the Group companies but we are open for outsider dealings too. We have a newly formed young team who all professionals and well trained in all aspects of business in which we operate.”

The company is also in the process of launching a Sri Lanka Opportunities Fund, managed by AWM for Japanese investors, which it hopes to have operational by the end of the year.

Providing integrated capital markets and advisory services, AWM offers innovative solutions, across a wide range of products including both buyside and sellside mergers and acquisitions (M&A), capital raisings, restructurings, project finance, structured finance, and tailored strategic and financial advice. The company’s most important role however is to exploit synergies between the other three core holdings of the Group. The company also has ties with Hardman and Company, one of the best research houses in London to broad base its research as well as to venture into investment banking activities.