【Live Recap 2】From Safe Haven to Alpha: Edward Pye's Case for Small & Mid Caps

Speaker: Edward Pye (Intermediary Distribution Director, Amova Asset Management)

Live Date: August 4, 2026 (Live Review>>)

In this livestream, Edward Pye made the structural case for Singapore equities — resilient performance, a widening dividend lead, and valuations that still leave room to run — before zeroing in on why he sees the most compelling opportunity sitting specifically in Singapore's under-researched small and mid-cap space, and how Amova's newly launched funds are built to capture it.

Want a deeper dive? We broke this session down into 4 full recap articles, each covering a different piece of the puzzle>

• Live Recap 1: Singapore's Quiet Rally — Inside the Road to the 5,000 STI Milestone

• Live Recap 2: The Sleep-Well Portfolio — Kenny Loh's Framework for Allocating to Singapore

• Live Recap 3: From Safe Haven to Investment Magnet — The Case for Singapore

• Live Recap 4: Hunting for Alpha — Amova's Small & Mid-Cap Playbook and New Fund Suite

Prefer to watch the highlights? Catch these key moments from the live session in short clip form>

• 【Livestream Clip 1｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: STI Hit 5,000 — Is 6,000 Closer Than You Think?】

• 【Livestream Clip 2｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: STI Rallied Hard — But Is It Still Cheap?】

• 【Livestream Clip 3｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: Singapore GDP at 6%? Most Investors Missed This】

• 【Livestream Clip 4｜Kenny Loh & Edward Pye: Smart Investors Don’t Just Pick Stocks】

🐯💬 Join the discussion: Share your market view or questions below. Every useful and thoughtful comment will receive Tiger Coins!

🎯 5 Key Takeaways

• Singapore's case rests on three pillars: resilient five-year performance versus global peers, a dividend yield of 4.4% (as of 30 June 2026) that's widened its lead over global peers, and valuations still around 17.5x — a discount to global markets and below Singapore's own previous bull-cycle peaks of 18–22x+.

• The S$6.5 billion Equity Market Development Programme (EQDP) is a real structural catalyst, not just a talking point — S$3.9 billion has already been awarded to nine asset managers to boost liquidity and price discovery, especially for small and mid caps.

• Singapore's listed market is quietly broadening beyond banks and REITs into "New Singapore" sectors — energy transition, digital infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and healthcare innovation.

• Small and mid caps offer a structurally better hunting ground: a much larger share trade below book value or hold net cash versus large caps, with thinner research coverage creating more mispricing for active managers to exploit.

• Amova has launched two new Singapore funds in 2026 (Small Mid Cap and Dividend & Growth Equity) alongside its two flagship funds, rounding out a full suite spanning dividend, growth, and small-cap mandates.

🧲 Why Singapore Thrives in a Volatile World

Against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tension, Edward Pye argued Singapore's diversified economy — finance, trade, tourism, manufacturing — steered by disciplined fiscal and monetary policy has turned it from a place capital simply parks safely into a magnet that actively attracts it: wealth flows in "not by accident but by design."

📊 Performance, Dividends and Valuation

The Full Picture Singapore has ranked among the world's top-performing equity markets over the past five years, delivers a dividend yield of 4.4% that's widened its lead over global peers (lifting total returns by as much as 38% since 2022), and — despite the rally — still trades around 17.5x versus the mid-twenties for the S&P 500 and global equities. Compared to Singapore's own past bull cycles (1993–1996, 2003–2007), where valuations ran to 18–22x+, the current cycle has only reached 15–16x, suggesting room left to re-rate.

🏛️ A S$6.5 Billion Structural Catalyst

The EQDP is a S$6.5 billion government commitment to boost liquidity, price discovery and local asset management capability — particularly for small and mid caps, where these have historically lagged. S$3.9 billion has already been awarded to nine asset managers across the first two phases.

🌱 Beyond Banks and REITs

The "New Singapore" Sectors Singapore's listed market is evolving toward energy transition ( $Sembcorp Ind(U96.SI)$), digital infrastructure ( $Keppel DC Reit(AJBU.SI)$), advanced manufacturing ( $Venture(V03.SI)$) and healthcare innovation (smaller names like $ULTRAGREEN AI SGD(UGS.SI)$, which listed in December 2025).

🔎 Why Small and Mid Caps Offer the Better Hunting Ground

With over 500 listed companies in Singapore, a much larger share of small and mid caps trade below book value or sit in net cash positions versus large caps — combined with thinner research coverage, that creates more mispricing for active, bottom-up stock-picking to exploit.

🗂️ Amova's Four-Fund Singapore Suite Two Flagship Funds

The Amova Singapore Dividend Equity Fund (~S$3.2B AUM, ~5% p.a. monthly dividend) and the Amova Singapore Equity Fund (Singapore's oldest unit trust, formerly Shenton Thrift, high-conviction bottom-up) — are now joined by two new 2026 launches: the Amova Singapore Small Mid Cap Fund (the only retail small-mid-cap fund of its kind in Singapore) and the Amova Singapore Dividend & Growth Equity Fund, both targeting quarterly dividends of roughly 3–6%.

🔍 Q&A Highlights

• Why active over an STI ETF? ETF construction is rules-based (liquidity, market cap, PE) rather than driven by qualitative judgment or management access — an edge active managers can bring, especially in thinly covered small-mid caps.

• Is Singapore still a defensive market? Edward Pye called it "a narrative that's evolving rather than disappearing" — still governance- and cash-flow-driven, but better framed today as a defensive core with selective growth optionality from the "New Singapore" sectors.

• Where's the next wave of growth? Regional services and platform businesses, energy-transition infrastructure enablers, the "second and third order" layer of digitalisation (IT services, cybersecurity, payments), and healthcare/wellness serving a growing regional middle class.

💬 Words from Edward Pye

"Wealth flows in not by accident but by design."

"We're not at the late stage of the valuation-driven rally."

"Singapore isn't just resilient — it's reinventing itself."

🐯 Your Turn: Join the Discussion Share your view on one of these questions:

• Do you think Singapore's "defensive" reputation still holds, or is that narrative changing for good?

• Would you rather own the well-known large caps, or hunt for value in Singapore's small and mid-cap space?

• Which "New Singapore" sector — energy transition, digital infrastructure, or healthcare innovation — do you think has the most room to run?

• For Singapore equity exposure, would you rather go with an active fund or a low-cost STI ETF?

🎁 Every useful, thoughtful, and well-explained comment will receive Tiger Coins.

Let's compare different views and learn from one another.