Thailand’s investors have shown an increasing interest in foreign assets, especially in global equities, Morningstar Direct data shows.
The total NAV of equity funds reached THB1.6trn ($42.7bn) in 2021, a 26.7% increase year-over-year.
Net inflows of THB204.5bn in 2021 was largely contributed by inflows in foreign investment fund (FIFs) – excluding fixed-term funds.
Last year, FIFs’ net assets reached THB1.2trn, representing a year-over-year increase of 37%.
This was mainly driven by net inflows of THB304.8bn for the year, of which THB53.6n were recorded in the fourth quarter last year.
Global equity and China equity funds topped the net inflows, with THB94.1bn and THB83.9THB in net inflows respectively.
In terms of net asset value (NAV), 2021 saw a year-over-year growth of 92% for global equity and 45.8% for China equity products.
However, China equity funds had the lowest average returns for the year.
Feeder funds
Almost a quarter of feeder funds’ investment, or THB43bn, went to Wellington Funds in 2021. Of which, the majority went to the Wellington Global Quality Growth Fund, which invests most of its AUM in North America information technology and financials.
It was followed by Baillie Gifford with an AUM of THB42bn, half of which comes from the investment from KAsset to Baillie Gifford Positive Change fund.
UBS funds shared almost a third of China Equity feeder funds’ investments in 2021 with total assets of THB45bn, followed by JP Morgan and Allianz.
Nevertheless, all the three funds were hit by the regulatory crackdowns across sectors, and only the Allianz China A Shares fund posted a positive return of 0.3% in 2021.
Returns from the two other master funds from UBS and JPM reported negative return of 13.7% and 19.6% respectively.
Domestic fund outflows
On the other hand, products investing in local equities suffered a net outflow of THB19.2bn in 2021, while the net outflows for the quarter amounted to THB1.2bn.
The total NAV of the Thailand equity fund increased 3.7% year-over-year to THB236bn.
Overall, the total NAV excluding closed-end products, Reits, infrastructure funds and ETF was THB4.3trn, increased by 7.7% year-over-year.
KAsset is the leading the domestic asset manager in terms of both AUM and net inflows with AUM of THB974.6trn, with a net inflow of THB36.7bn for the year.
The second and third largest asset managers in the country are SCBAM and BBLAM respectively, but they recorded the most net outflows for the year.
With an AUM of THB649.4bn, SCBAM saw net outflows of THB24.4bn, most of which came from allocation funds.
Thailand Fund Flows 2021
| Asset class | Net inflow (THB bn) | Asset class | Net outflow (THB bn) |
| Global equity | +94.1 | Money market | -106 |
| China | +83.9 | Equity large-cap | -31.6 |
| Short term bond | +49.7 | Global bond | -25.9 |
| Global health care | +31.9 | Conservative allocation | -23.1 |
| Global technology | +23.7 | Property – indirect flexible | -21.1 |
| Foreign investment miscellaneous | +19.2 | Equity small/mid-cap | -4.8 |
| Global sector focus equity | +19.2 | Moderate allocation | -4.6 |
| Europe equity | +16.9 | Bond fix term | -4.6 |
| Country Focus Equity | +16.2 | Property-indirect global | -2.7 |
| US Equity | +16.1 | Commodities energy | -2.5 |
