i-VCAP distributes RM8.75 million for MyETF series

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KUALA LUMPUR: i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd (i-VCAP) has declared the income distribution for the funds under its MyETF Series of syariah-compliant exchange traded funds (ETFs).

These are the MyETF Dow Jones Islamic Market Malaysia Titans 25 (MyETF-DJIM25), MyETF MSCI-Malaysia Islamic Dividend (MyETF-MMID) and MyETF MSCI SEA Islamic Dividend (MyETF-MSEAD), for the financial year ended December 31, 2017.

In its press statement, it said a total of RM8.75 million is allocated for the income distribution of MyETF series. For the local underlying ETFs, which are MyETF-DJIM25 and MyETF-MMID, unitholders will receive 2.39 sen and 2.81 sen per unit respectively.

Meanwhile, MyETF-MSEAD, which provides exposure to five regional markets, will distribute 1.51 sen per unit to its unitholders. The entitlement date for the income distribution is on March 5, 2018 while payment is set for March 29, 2018.

“We continually engage and commit in investor awareness initiatives and participate in regulators’ roadshows to educate investors on the benefits and opportunities with regard to ETFs.

“This year, we plan to carry out even more activities to raise awareness of ETFs among institutional and retail investors and to promote our Syariah-compliant MyETF Series,” said i-VCAP chief executive officer Khairi Shahrin Arief Baki.

Apart from providing investors exposure into the different investment underlying, the funds under MyETF Series have consistently declared income distributions to unitholders each year. The income distributions are largely derived from dividend income that each fund received from its equity holdings.

Global economic numbers were stronger in 2017 supported by synchronised expansion in both the advanced economies as well as emerging markets.

i-VCAP said, the funds under the MyETF series continue to meet the objective of tracking their respective benchmark indices during the year.

The MyETF Series provide investors additional avenues for portfolio diversification, allowing instant access to other markets. ETFs generally have relatively low transaction costs with no sales charge. Since the MyETF Series is listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd (Bursa Securities), it is convenient for Malaysian investors to transact (buy/sell) their units via any online trading platform.

“Given the evolving investing landscape, which has seen many innovative and exciting investment opportunities and developments in the digital space over recent years, we also aim to find new ways to reach investors.

“In particular, we hope to strengthen our presence on the digital front, be it through social or robo-advisory platforms, to attract not only experienced investors but to also engage new, millennial investors into considering ETFs,” Khairi added.

According to Khairi, i-VCAP plans to introduce more ETFs in 2018 covering different asset classes, geographies, or currencies. i-VCAP’s intention is to issue more innovative products in the syariah-compliant ETF space depending on clients’ needs and market demand.

At the same time, i-VCAP will continue to working closely with product partners as well as the regulators to improve the ETF ecosystem and subsequently trading liquidity.