The Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted MitonOptimal Asia, the discretionary fund management firm, a full capital markets licence, while the Jersey Financial Services Commission has consented to the MitonOptimal group's acquisition of Orchard Wealth Management.

MitonOptimal has had a client support office in East Asia for years, but this was a representative office and only now can MitonOptimal offer full DFM and investment management services to accredited investors, financial advisors, trust companies and other institutional clients in the same way that it already does in many other places, including the Channel Islands, South Africa and the UK.

Meanwhile, MitonOptimal International has secured its acquisition of Orchard Wealth Management Ltd in Jersey, after receiving regulatory approval from the Jersey Financial Services Commission.

Orchard is led by a fund manager called Richard Harwood, who will be joining the group's board of directors. He manages the Orchard Fund, a sub-fund of Orchard Funds plc, a Dublin-listed UCITS (Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) with a highly successful track record since 2003.

The bigwigs at MitonOptimal have trusted Harwood with some investments and have been watching his progress for years.

In January last year, the firm also expanded in the Isle of Man through a merger with an investment advisory firm called Blythe Financial.

Further expansion is planned for the MitonOptimal group as a whole. It was established in 2002 and has ten offices all over the world.