The fund management arm of AMMB Holdings said the new launches are in response to investors’ demand for higher risk funds and a higher yield than fixed deposit rates.
The US-Canada Income and Growth Fund offers income and to lesser extent long-term capital appreciation by investing at least 95% of its assets in the Allianz Income and Growth Fund, which in turn is UCITS-complaint fund domiciled in Luxembourg. The target fund invests in high-yield bonds, convertible bonds and equities, including covered call writing.
The other fund offered is the Europe Equity Growth Fund which aims to offer long-term capital growth by investing at least 95% of its corpus in Allianz Europe Equity Growth Fund, which in turn invests primarily in European equity markets.
Maznah Mahbob, chief executive said: “We are optimistic of the take-up of these two funds from our investors. The countries and regions that both of the target funds are investing- United States, Canada and Europe-have (a) promising outlook in terms of growth.”
Both the US-Canada Income and Growth and Europe Equity Growth funds are targeted primarily at qualified investors and are currently distributed by AmInvestment Bank and Citibank.
Investors can apply into these funds with a minimum initial investment of RM1,000 (£200, $300 ) and minimum additional investment of RM500. While there is no exit charge in these schemes, both funds charge an entry fee of 5% of the net assets and an annual management fee of up to 1.8%.
The performance of the US-Canada Income and Growth is measured against the S&P 500 Index while that of the Europe Equity Growth is tracked against the S&P Europe Large Mid Cap Growth Index.
The US-Canada Income and Growth was open for initial subscription during 17 June to 7 July, while the Europe Equity Growth is available for initial subscription from 10 July until 30 July.Early April, the fund house floated a feeder fund into BlackRock’s Global Multi-Asset Income Fund.
AmInvest is the brand for the funds management business of AMMB Holdings, which manages both conventional and Shariah-compliant funds with about RM38.1 bn in assets under management as of 30 June.