Business

Thursday July 22, 2010

AmInvestment aims to manage more assets

By DANNY YAP
danny@thestar.com.my


KUALA LUMPUR: AmInvestment Bank Group’s fund management division is confident of achieving 20% to 25% growth in assets under management (AUM) for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. The bank’s AUM stood at RM20.2bil as at June 30.

Funds management division retail funds director Ng Chze How said with a bullish outlook in the commodity and equity markets, the group expects its fund management division to perform well, especially in the medium to longer-term.

“The global economy is generally on the uptrend, along with demand for commodities, despite some volatility, but this presents buying opportunitities,” he told reporters after the launch of the AmCommodities Equity fund yesterday.

Ng said some of the factors that would drive demand for commodities would be rising global population, large infrastructure projects in China as well as emerging markets, and rising world energy consumption.

On market talk of a double-dip recession, he said: “Looking at our consensus and analysis, we think the probability of double-dip is very slim, probably about 15%. Most of the bad news are already out.”

Datin Maznah Mahbob and Ng Chze How fielding questions from reporters after the launch of the AmCommodities Equity fund yesterday

On the bank’s latest fund, Ng said AmCommodities Equity was a syariah-compliant fund targeted at investors who wanted to participate and diversify their investment portfolio to include commodity-related securities, particularly with a focus on the energy and mining sectors.

AmCommodities Equity has an approved fund size of 200 million units.

Funds management division chief executive officer Datin Maznah Mahbob said through AmCommodities Equity, investors can leverage on the experience of Amundi Asset Management, an asset management company that has managed commodity equities since 1980 and provided syariah-compliant solutions since 1993.

She said the fund invests in commodity-producing global companies to capture the growth potential within a syariah-compliant market via target fund, CAAM Islamic Global Resources.

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