RHB Asset partners NY-based Neuberger Berman

PETALING JAYA: RHB Asset Management Sdn Bhd (RHB AM), an entity of RHB Banking Group, has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with New York-based Neuberger Berman (NB) to leverage on each other’s core capabilities, experience and expertise.
“In addition to that, we will work together to develop and offer private equity and other alternative strategies in both the conventional and Shariah space,” RHB AM managing director and regional head Eliza Ong said in a statement yesterday.
In conjunction with the five-year partnership, RHB AM launched its multi strategy private equity fund, a first-of-its kind in Asia, to provide investors the opportunity to participate in global private equity investments, mainly focused in US and Europe.
Ong said the introduction of the fund aims to achieve attractive, risk-adjusted returns on capital through the investment portfolio over seven years of charter life.
She said the fund will leverage on NB private equity’s global platform to the selected best of the best private equity strategies, including direct equity, direct private debt, opportunistic secondaries and specialty strategies.
“With Neuberger Berman’s 29 years of experience and expertise, strong relationships with more than 300 general partners (GPs) and over 14,000 private equity owned companies, we believe we can achieve long term capital appreciation of 15%-20% gross internal rate of return (IRR) for this fund,” Ong added.
The fund is offered at RM1 per unit, with a minimum initial investment of RM100,000, and serves a management fee of 2.5% of the net asset value per annum.
In this partnership, Ong said NB will act as a sub investment manager of the fund, which is responsible for all sourcing, execution and management of investments.
She added the partnership also includes developing personalised private equity solutions for high net worth investors, while targeting middle to high teens returns with the privilege of a shorter fund duration than typical private equity funds.
Founded in 1939, NB is a private, independent employee-owned global investment firm with US$243 billion (RM988 billion) assets under management covering equities, fixed income and alternative investments.
With offices in 19 countries globally, it has more than 2,100 employees to date.