EDHEC-RISK INSTITUTE OPENS CENTRE IN ASIA

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab

SINGAPORE, April 29 (Bernama) -– EDHEC-Risk Institute, a leading European
research organisation for investment and risk management, Thursday opened a
centre for Asia in Singapore.

The institute, part of France’s century-old Ecole de Hautes Etudes
Commerciales Business School, will study and survey issues that are relevant to
institutional investors and assets managers in the Asia-Pacific Region.

The institute’s Singapore director, Frederic Ducoulombier, said the centre
would initially have 10 professionals including six researchers who would
conduct research on the business needs of the industry players.

Lionel Martellini, another director from the Nice-headquartered institute,
said unlike other research organisations that conducted research for academic
purposes, the institute would provide solutions to questions faced by Asia’s
investors and funders.

Martellini said the institute aimed to help bridge the gap between academic
research and industry practices, which had become all the more glaring during
the global financial crisis when many money managers were found not to have used
state-of-the-art techniques recommended by research.

The directors were briefing journalists here on the opening of the
institute, saying the city-state was chosen for its status as a financial and
educational hub in Asia, and also it had the support of the local monetary
authority.

Noel Amenc, the institute director in Nice, said these were exciting times
to be in Asia, and while "wealth had been accumulating at a stupendous pace in
the region, Asian economies need to address complex demographic, economic, and
infrastructure issues for growth to be sustained."

He said the institute expected to see a surge in demand for quality research
and education from professional investment managers in Asia as the industry
responded to the challenges and potential presented by the region’s changes.

The Singapore institute will adapt existing research programmes to Asian
specificities and develop two new programmes, with one looking at new inflation
hedging solutions and the other at the management of sovereign funds and state
pension funds.

Next month, the institute will run the first Asian edition of its Advances
in Asset Allocation Seminar that will track the latest industry trends and
research advances in asset allocation and risk management.

And, from next year, the institute will offer two of its highly successful
post-graduate degree courses in finance (doctor of philosophy) and risk and
investment management (master of science) for financial practitioners.

-- BERNAMA