16 theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 21 2009

business

PNB offers 5.33bil
new units in ASM, ASW
JOHOR BARU: Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB),
the country’s biggest fund manager managing
RM76 billion worth of funds, will offer 3.33 billion
new units of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) and
two billion Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 (ASW
2020) units, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul
Razak announced yesterday.
He said the units would be sold from today at
all the 1,500 agents and Amanah Saham Nasional
Bhd offices country-wide and the ASW 2020 units
can bought from April 27.
Each investor can buy a maximum of 20,000
units in the two schemes.
The announcement on the new unit trust offer,
which would enable more Malaysians to partici-
pate in the capital market, was made by the prime
minister when launching the 2009 Malaysian Unit
Trust Week here.
The unit trust week, an annual event, is to boost
awareness and understanding on investment and
importance of planning one’s finances.
Najib said the unit trust week hosted consist-
ently every year over the past 19 years had yielded
positive results in educating the people on the
importance of savings and investment.
“If during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98
saw investors withdrawing close to RM1 billion
from unit trust schemes run by PNB like ASB, the
situation is much better now,” said Najib, who is
also finance minister.
The prime minister said last year, PNB enjoyed
more than RM10 billion in net inflow into funds
it was managing. “I’m very happy PNB has suc-
ceeded in pooling more than RM87 billion from
more than 9.3 million investors,” he said.
Najib said the net inflow of PNB unit trusts was
RM5 billion so far this year.
He said the dividend distributed to investors has
exceeded RM65 billion, thus contributing to improve
the socio-economic well-being of the people.
“This means PNB’s unit trust funds have edu-
cated the people to be more efficient and prudent
in managing their finances,” he said.
Najib said the introduction of ASN and other
unit trust schemes through PNB had changed the
people’s paradigm on investing in unit trusts to an
unexpected level.
“Before ASN was introduced, Malaysians,
especially bumiputras, were very alien to the
investment world,” he said
The prime minister said the unit trust industry
became synonym with the people through PNB’s
continuous aggressive efforts until now besides
efficient implementation of investment educa-
tional programmes.
“In fact, it is not too much if I say the PNB unit
trusts have succeeded in developing an own brand
in the country’s unit trust industry by galvanising
solid support from bumiputras and non-bumipu-
tras,” he added. – Bernama
BERNAMAPIX
Najib,
accompanied
by wife Datin
Seri Rosmah
CIMB-Principal launches
Mansor,
checks
out the
China recovery fund
services at a by Kristene Silva Marie chief investment officer Raymond Tang
counter after newsdesk@thesundaily.com said the fund has picked China for its
launching ample opportunities.
the Unit Trust
KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB-Principal As- “In terms of domestic market re-
Week at Plaza set Management Berhad yesterday covery, China, which fell 70% last year,
Angsana in launched the CIMB-Principal China Re- is strongest this year with about 25%
Johor Baru. covery Structured Fund which rides on recovery,” he said, adding that it is the
China’s economic recovery to provide best performing stock market this year.
investors with regular income over its The fund offers capital protection if
tenure. held to maturity.
The company expects the fund to It would also reduce investor’s di-
provide higher returns than the current lemma in terms of entry to the Chinese
fixed deposit rate. market as the fund would automatically
CIMB-Principal chief executive officer select and lock in investments at lowest
J. Campbell Tupling said the sentiments entry level to enhance potential gains
in China are slowly improving with after a six-month observation.
its US$585 billion (RM2.106 trillion) Tupling said investors can expect a
stimulus plan. better outlook for China this year as the
“Positive developments are visible in overall view is that China will be one of
major sectors covering infrastructure, the first economies to recover.
Tupling (left) housing, innovation, health and educa- The fund has an approved fund size
with CIMB tion that will enable China to charter of 300 million units, and an initial offer
Bank head of high growth potential,” he said. price of RM0.50 per unit. It is distributed
retail banking The fund will invest at least 95% of by CIMB Bank, CIMB Private Banking,
Peter England the its net asset value (NAV) in China’s CIMB Investment Bank, and CIMB
and Tang at recovery structured products, with the Wealth Advisers.
the launch rest to be invested in liquid assets for The CIMB-Principal China Recovery
of the fund liquidity purposes. Structured Fund is open for investment
yesterday. CIMB-Principal Asset Management for 45 days and closes on June 3.

SHARIL AMIN/THESUN

‘M’sia needs bond insurance market’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia needs to estab-
lish a bond insurance market to lift investor
confidence and spur the bond industry, said
Edward I. Altman, finance professor of New
York University.
He said the country’s corporate bond had
dried up to the point where no issuance is
taking place, except at the AAA and AA ratings
level.
“There should be some sort of confidence
building mechanism for the market,” he told
reporters at a seminar on current conditions,
outlook and managing credit risk in a global
crisis organised by RAM Holdings Bhd, here.
Altman said the market requires solvent
insurance or government insurance so that in
the event it fails, investors would be repaid.
“The government should play a leading role
in realising this,” he added.
He pointed out that the proposal to estab-
lish a government guarantee fund or insurance
in the country would bring a positive effect to
the market only if the premium to be paid by
the company is reasonable. – Bernama