Linear Investments Joins Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange As Pioneer London Broker Member

The Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange (“SDiX”), the world’s first and only commodity exchange trading in physically settled diamonds, today announced that Linear Investments Limited (UK) (“Linear”), an FCA-regulated investment manager and prime broker, has joined SDiX to provide its clients the opportunity to invest in diamonds as an asset class.

By bringing Linear onto the SDiX platform, SDiX will be better able to offer all UK and European investors access to trade fungible, investment grade diamonds in a regulated environment.

SDiX offers new opportunities to trade in immobilized single stones and ‘baskets’ which are fungible collections of investment-grade diamonds. Both single stones and baskets can be traded electronically on a price/time priority in a continuous market, and buyers can place indicative price bids and offers by diamond category. All stones traded on SDiX are GIA-graded and buyers of single stones can examine certifications directly through the platform. All fungible baskets have an identical total carat weight, and, for each category, comprise an equal number of stones of identical cut, clarity and colour.

Alain Vandenborre, Chairman and Founder of the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange, commented: “We welcome Linear Investments as the first European broker member to the platform, offering their clients access to this new and exciting asset class on the world’s first exchange for diamonds. At SDiX we are committed to stringent regulatory standards and full transparency, making FCA-regulated Linear an ideal partner for the Exchange in the European markets.”

Jerry Lees, Chairman of Linear, added: “At Linear we are committed to offering our clients innovative financial products, and by standardizing global trading in diamonds SDiX has unlocked a new investment opportunity for our clients. With the introduction of the first regulated trading environment for diamonds, we look forward to working with SDiX to offer our investors the opportunity to diversify their portfolios to include this non-correlated, alternative asset.”

SDiX has been established to provide the only transparent price discovery mechanism for the global diamond trade, giving banks, financial firms and investors a benchmark price to value diamonds as an asset. The exchange is supported by a fully integrated ecosystem, including a depository that enables the physical settlement of diamonds, and a global network of partners focused on grading, vaulting, settlement and logistics. Trading on the exchange is scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2016.

SDiX is backed by leading global investors including Vertex Venture Holdings, one of the longest operating venture capital firms in Asia and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund.