CIMB-Principal aims to rope in EPF on Asia Pac fund
CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd is applying to the Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) to allow the latter's contributors to invest their funds in its Asia Pacific fund, CIMB-Principal chief executive Noripah Kamiso said.“We expect to get a response from the EPF in a month and a half,” she told reporters after launching the Asia Pacific Adil fund, Malaysia’s first Asia Pacific Syariah compliant unit trust fund, in Kuala Lumpur on June 2.
Noripah said permission was needed under the Finance Ministry's guidelines before the fund can be invested abroad by a foreign asset management company.
UOB Asset Management Ltd is the sub manager of the fund to manage the foreign equity portion of the Asia Pacific Adil Fund portfolio.
Asia Pacific Adil Fund, which has a size of 300 million units at 50 sen each, allows investors access to 14 Asian equity markets: Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Half of the fund will be invested in Japan, 13% in Australia, 10% in South Korea, 6% in China, 5% in Taiwan and 16% in the remaining countries.
The annual management fee and trustee fees are 1.8% per annum and 0.07% per annum, respectively, while the application fee is 5%. The minimum investment is RM2,000.
Noripah aims for the fund to be fully subscribed within 21 days from its offer period.
She said CIMB-Principal is nearing the 30% overseas investment limit imposed by Bank Negara Malaysia and is trying to increase its fund base to have higher overseas investment margins.
She said the merger of CIMB-Principal and SBB Mutual Bhd would see the group asset management size rising to RM16 billion by year-end.
On the returns on investment in the Asia Pacific equity market, UOB Asset Management Asia Pacific Equities head Koh Swee Nguan said: “Historically investment in Asia Pacific equities over a period of three to five years has generated returns of between 11% and 12%.”
~courtesy of theedgedaily.com (02/06/2006)
posted by fooyee @ 5:41 PM
