Thailand’s first robotics fund launches

The fund, the ASP-Robot fund, is Thailand’s first fund with the investment theme of robotics and artificial intelligence, according to the firm’s website. 

The fund invests up to 79% of its assets in Axa IM’s World Funds Framlington Robotech Fund and up to 21% in structured notes, which include foreign debt instruments issued by foreign banks.

Axa IM’s robotics fund was just launched in February, according to FE data.

The Axa fund was invested in only four sectors as of the end of June, with significant overweights in the IT and industrial sectors relative to its benchmark, the MSCI AC World Index, according to its fund factsheet.

Source: Axa Investment Managers

In terms of country breakdown, the fund invests heavily in the US, Japan and Germany.

Source: Axa Investment Managers 

Bangkok-based Asset Plus manages 12 other funds that invest in regional and global markets, including Asian-, China-, Europe- and Japan-focused products. It also has eight passive funds that invest in foreign markets.

Wrong timing?

The timing of the fund launch comes during a period when Thai investors prefer fixed income funds.

In 2016, fixed income funds made up 55% of Thailand’s $106.50bn fund industry, while equity funds accounted for just 23%, according to Morningstar data.

“The market has been volatile and many unexpected events happened last year,” Rui Ming Tay, Singapore-based senior analyst at research firm Cerulli Associates, said in a previous FSA interview. “As such, investors were hurt by the underperformance in equities, especially foreign equity funds.”  

The trend continued this year as fixed income funds saw the biggest inflows during the first four months, with Thai investors pouring THB320.6bn ($9.3bn) into the products, according to Morningstar data.

The performance of the Axa World Funds Framlington Robotech Fund since its inception versus its benchmark, according to FE data. 

 All fund and benchmark NAVs have been converted to US dollars for comparison purposes.