AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) has signed a partnership agreement with UBS Global Wealth Management (UBS GWM) in the Asia-Pacific region to offer its private wealth clients in Hong Kong and Singapore access to its metaverse strategy.

The strategy, which UBS GWM’s clients will be the first in Hong Kong and Singapore to access, will provide long-term investors with potential diversification benefits and quality exposure to the metaverse’s rising long-term growth opportunities in a rapidly evolving economy.

Incepted in April this year, the strategy aims, AXA IM says, to invest in companies that play a part in the convergence of the digital and physical world, presenting long-term investment potential from the metaverse in both developed and emerging markets.

The actively managed, multi-cap equity strategy focuses on four key sub themes – gaming, socialising, working and enabling – to provide exposure to long-term trends and allow diversification to suit changing market conditions.

As one of the first active managers to launch a strategy tapping into metaverse opportunities, the company has a dedicated tech equity specialist team across the world with a strong track record of developing and managing disruptive tech strategies, with the support of macro research and responsible investment teams.

This environmental, social and governance (ESG)-integrated strategy currently has a major allocation on information technology and communication services, and the rest spans across consumer discretionary, real estate, healthcare, industrials and financials.

“Revolutionary, cutting-edge advances in technology have changed how we live, socialise, work and do business,” says Pauline Llandric, AXA IM’s tech equity specialist. “The metaverse is the confluence of the virtual and physical worlds, where more technology is layered on to everyday life associated with the evolution of the internet connecting people, places and things.”