The CIMB-Principal China Multi Asset Income Fund aims to deliver income and moderate capital growth, while offering exposure to China’s A-share and bond markets, according to a statement from the firm.
It is the firm’s first China-focused fund. CIMB-Principal already offers a Greater China equity fund and its Islamic version.
The new fund will feed at least 95% of assets into the Hong Kong-domiciled HSBC China Multi Asset Income Fund, according to the statement.
“Through an actively-managed multi-asset fund, investors can capture the opportunities in Chinese assets throughout the different phases of the economic cycles,” Puneet Chaddha, HSBC Global Asset Management’s CEO and head for Southeast Asia, said in the statement.
“The low correlation between Chinese assets also allows for greater diversification, which strengthens the cushioning effect of a portfolio,” he added.
CIMB-Principal offers 64 funds in Malaysia, with 37 of them investing in global and regional markets.
The firm is expecting the new fund to be popular in Malaysia. Munirah Khairuddin, the firm’s CEO, said that the firm was confident that the fund’s assets under management would reach RM 300m ($69.77m) by the end of 2017.
Currently, the fund has two share classes: one is hedged in the Malaysian ringgit, with a minimum initial investment of RM 10,000 and the other denominated in US dollars, with an initial investment of $5,000, according to the statement.
HSBC Bank Malaysia will be the exclusive distributor of the fund for the first six months after the fund’s launch.
The assets of Malaysian funds investing abroad have been growing in the past five years. Their assets under management increased by 70% to RM 144.93bn from RM 84.38bn in 2013, according to data from Malaysia’s Securities Commission.
Malaysia’s asset management industry (AUM in RM bn)
|
|
Inside Malaysia |
Outside Malaysia |
Total |
|
March 2017 |
588.95 |
144.93 |
733.88 |
|
March 2016 |
553.3 |
115.2 |
668.5 |
|
March 2015 |
542.1 |
119.26 |
661.36 |
|
March 2014 |
505.38 |
98.8 |
604.18 |
|
March 2013 |
437.8 |
84.38 |
522.18 |
Source: Securities Commission Malaysia
CIMB-Principal is also the first Malaysian asset manager to receive quotas for China’s renminbi qualified foreign institutional investor programme.
The three-year performance of the HSBC China Multi Asset Income Fund, in which the CIMB-Principal multi-asset fund invests, versus its benchmark.
The fund’s NAV and benchmark index have been converted to US dollars for comparison purposes.
