CGS International Launches Singapore Next 50 Active ETF with Fullgoal as Adviser

CGS International Securities (Singapore) has launched the CGS Fullgoal Singapore Next 50 Active ETF, with Fullgoal Asset Management (Hong Kong) Limited — the wholly owned subsidiary of Fullgoal Fund Management — serving as investment adviser and providing stock-selection support. Unlike most previous overseas fund products launched by mainland Chinese asset managers, this ETF invests directly in Singapore-listed companies rather than A-shares or Hong Kong stocks, and does not track any China-asset index. Stock selection is handled by Fullgoal's quantitative model, which has been in operation for years.

The product focuses mainly on Singapore small- and mid-cap stocks, benchmarked against the SGX iEdge Singapore Next 50 Index, which covers the 50 largest listed companies by market capitalisation outside the 30 constituents of the FTSE Straits Times Index (STI), with combined market value of about SG$110 billion. As of end-June 2026, median analyst coverage of Next 50 constituents was six, compared with 16 for STI constituents; 11 Next 50 constituents had coverage from no more than three analysts. Over the past 12 months, total returns among Next 50 constituents ranged from above 160% to about minus 36%, with overall return dispersion nearly three times that of the STI.

The product does not adopt a simple index-replication strategy, instead opting for active management. Fullgoal's quantitative team, established in 2009, has built its approach on a fundamental multi-factor system and in recent years added AI-assisted quantitative research. The model, previously used in the domestic mainland China market, is now being applied to screen Singapore-listed stocks.

In 2024, Saudi Arabia's Albilad Capital partnered with CSOP Asset Management to list the country's first ETF investing in Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies. In 2025, depositary receipts backed by the Invesco Great Wall ChiNext 50 ETF were listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. In Brazil, products linked to the China Universal CSI 300 ETF and the ChinaAMC ChiNext ETF have also been launched. This phase of international expansion was centred on Chinese assets.

In another model, mainland fund companies have begun participating in the investment management of overseas products or serving as investment advisers. In 2020, ChinaAMC partnered with NN Investment Partners to launch a China A-share fund, with ChinaAMC handling day-to-day investment management and NNIP providing ESG research support. At end-2024, ChinaAMC and Oman's Jabal Asset Management established the Jabal ChinaAMC Loong Equity Fund, registered in Oman as a local open-ended fund investing mainly in mainland Chinese and Hong Kong stocks, with ChinaAMC as investment adviser. Although these products have brought the active management capabilities of mainland fund companies overseas, their investment targets have remained predominantly Chinese equities. The application of the quantitative model to Singapore-listed stocks thus marks a case in which a mainland public fund has directly deployed its active investment research system to an overseas local asset class.