KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd is launching an
additional 12 investment funds this year in Malaysia, Singapore and
Indonesia, in addition to the six it has already introduced to the
market, according to chief executive Noripah Kamso.
Of these, seven funds are for the Malaysian market, four for Indonesia
and one for Singapore, she told reporters after the launch of the
CIMB-Principal Greater China Equity Fund on Monday.
Currently, funds under management total "slightly under RM16bil",
Noripah said, adding that the company is on track to hit its RM19bil
target by the year's end, given the amount of new products it is coming
up with.
On the CIMB-Principal Greater China Equity Fund itself, she said, it
allows investors to tap into the Greater China economies of China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan, which are buoyed by a number of factors.
It also feeds 95% of net asset value into the Luxembourg-based Schroder
ISF Greater China fund, which has invested 41.1% into China, 27.7% in
Taiwan, 18.1% in Hong Kong and 3.3% in Singaporean firms whose bulk of
their business is in China.
Chief investment officer Raymond Tang said that the investment strategy
for this fund this year would concentrate on insurance and telco stocks
in China, telco stocks in Taiwan, financial services in Hong Kong and
shipbuilding and repair in China and Singapore.
Chief investment officer Raymond Tang, in a briefing, said that despite
talk about the China's stocks bubble bursting and the recent spate of
corrections in the stock markets, the outlook remained positive as
economic growth would be driven by local consumption.
Tang also said with the 2008 Beijing Olympics together with the
Shanghai World Expo in 2010 would develop infrastructure, public works
and airport projects, further driving the Chinese economy.
The fund's distributors are CIMB Bank, CIMB Wealth Advisors, Citibank, Hong Leong Bank and Standard Chartered Bank.
It has a fund size of 300 million units at 50 sen each, amounting to RM150mil.
The fund's annual management fee is 1.8%.