THANK YOU: Ameer (second left) presents a memento to Kristoffer (second right). Also seen are political secretary to the chief minister Angeline Umih (left) and PRS deputy treasurer-general Cr Edward Kurik.
KUCHING: ASM Investment Services Bhd (ASM Investment), a subsidiary of Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara), which manages 14 unit trusts worth about RM500 million, is targeting to manage RM1 billion worth of investment funds by the end of next year.
Its chief executive officer Ameer Ali Mohamed said the company would continue with strengthen its performance and unit trusts position, apart from increasing the size of the investment funds.
“This is in our effort to be a syariah compliant fund manager that is responsive to the needs of the customers because the welfare of our investors is the corner stone of our business,” he said at the launch of the company’s Investors Friendly Day at Kuching Park Hotel here yesterday.
The event was jointly organised between ASM Investment and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS). It was launched by PRS supreme council member Dato Kristoffer Nyuak Bajok, who represented party president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing.
Ameer stated that as a proof to the company’s commitment towards syariah compliant unit trust investment, it has two of its shariah compliant namely ASM Shariah Agressive Fund and ASM Shariah Growth Fund that are in the first and second position respectively in the Edge Lipper list for yearly performance as of Nov 15 this year.
He said the company aims to be a full fledged syariah compliant fund manager by the end of this year, adding that the conversion process would not affect the investors’ confidence towards the company.
“Even when we convert to be a full fledged syariah compliant fund manager, non-Muslims still can invest in syariah compliant companies. As for the Muslim investors, there is only one investment avenue for them that is to invest in syariah compliant companies.”
In fact, Ameer pointed out that from the company’s 70,000 unit trusts investors throughout the country, about 12,000 were non-Muslim unit trust holders.
Besides that, he was also happy to note that the investors from the state had shown very encouraging response to the company’s unit trusts investments, with a total of 7,500 investors are from the state.
Meanwhile, Kristoffer in his speech said through unit trusts, the lower and middle income segment of the community would be able to participate in economic development besides gaining profit from the share market for middle and long term invesment.
He noted that as of Sept this year, a total of 43 unit trusts fund managing company which offer 622 unit trust funds to the investors with the net asset value of RM329 billion.
“From the 612 funds, 431 are conventional unit trust funds and only 181 are shariah funds. The shariah funds formed RM39 billion or 11.9 per cent from the total unit trust funds in the industry.
“The unit trust fund industry in this year also formed 20.4 per cent nett asset valye compared with the percentage of the Bursa Malaysia capital market which was valued at RM1,611 billion.”
He said the statistics showed the shariah compliant unit trust fund industry has great potential for further development.
Kristoffer also encouraged villagers affected by the construction of hydroelectric dams in Murum, Belaga, Baram and Baleh to invest the money compensated to them in unit trust funds.
“I don’t know about the compensation but I believe the compensation will be paid fairly to those affected by the dam.
“However, some of them don’t even know where and how to manage their money so I think we really need to educate our people to invest in unit trust funds, especially in the ones offered by ASM investment because it is backed by the government.”