Aberdeen focuses more on provident funds
Aberdeen Asset Management is focusing more on the provident-fund business, targeting small to medium-sized enterprises in the hope of bringing total assets of provident funds to Bt4 billion by the end of the year.
Sujaree Junsawang, director and acting chief executive officer, said yesterday that its current total assets under management were Bt25 billion, up 13.64 per cent from last year-end. Of that, Bt22.9 billion is mutual funds, up 20.53 per cent from end-December.
“The company’s strong point is managing mutual funds focusing on investments in equity and debt instruments both domestically and internationally,” she said.
Since entering the Thai market a decade ago, the company has expanded its fund management into provident funds, starting from Bt3.3 billion in fund value with 30,000 provident members.
Sujaree said Aberdeen’s newest service for provident-fund management was the Master Pooled Fund, under which employees who are provident-fund members could have several choices for their investments to maximise their returns when they retire.
They can choose from the company’s four selected good-performance funds: the open-ended Aberdeen Cash Creation Fund, the open-ended Aberdeen Income Creation Fund, the Aberdeen Growth Fund, and the open-ended Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Fund.
In addition, Sujaree said the company’s clients could opt for two types of investments – Free Choices, under which they can mix the four funds as desired, and Pre-Set Choices, under which the members can opt from lowest up to highest risks. The members are also allowed to shift their investment policies twice a year.
“The Master Pooled Fund will focus on clients that are listed companies, from small to medium sized and foreign firms,” said Sujaree, adding that the provident funds’ size would be varied from Bt50 million to Bt200 million.
“We expect the Master Pooled Fund’s size should be Bt1 billion by early next year and Bt2 billion by next year-end,” she said.
Sujaree said Thai society was ageing, with people older than 60 years accounting for 10 per cent of the population.
Of Thailand’s total mutual funds, equity funds make up 20 per cent and provident funds 12 per cent.
By the end of the second quarter, the total value of provident funds was Bt656.26 billion, with 460 funds. There were 12,213 employers and 2.51 million members. But those employers that provide employees’-choice funds numbered about 3,170 companies with 106 funds.
