Lion Global launches first physical gold fund vaulted in Singapore

It offers retail investors here a new way to gain exposure to the precious metal

- Timothy Goh and Chor Khieng Yuit Senior Business Correspondent

Retail investors in Singapore have anew way to gain exposure to gold with the launch of the Republic’s first physical gold fund that is insured and securely vaulted here.

The LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold Fund was launched on Nov 25 by Lion Global Investors, an asset manager wholly owned by OCBC Bank.

The fund will be distributed through OCBC, MariBank Singapore, iFast, Great Eastern, POEMS and Singlife Group, with Standard Chartered Bank Singapore serving as custodian.

Mr Teo Joo Wah, chief executive of Lion Global Investors, said there are plans to list the fund on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) by the first quarter of 2026.

There is currently just one listed gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the SGX - the SPDR Gold Shares ETF. The ETF is managed by State Street Global Advisors and is available in the USand Singapore-dollar versions.

The LionGlobal Singapore Physical Gold Fund is not currently eligible for the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS), which allows members to invest a portion of their CPF savings in funds approved by the CPF Board.

Mr Teo noted that the passive fund hopes to get CPFIS approval earlier than the usual three-year timeline for active funds.

Asked why the asset manager is launching the fund now, Mr Teo said there were some regulatory issues that it had to iron out.

“We are not rushing in because gold prices have gone up. We had actually planned to launch this fund since the beginning of the year,” he added.