Philip Capital enters M'sian market with 3 new unit trust funds

Singapore-based Philip Capital group has made its foray into the local unit trust market when its Malaysian unit Philip Mutual Bhd launches three unit trust funds with fund size of 200 million units each at 50 sen a unit on June 18.

The new unit trust funds are Philip Master First Ethical Fund, Equity Growth Fund and Money Market Fund.

The financial services group operates in 10 countries including the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Australia, Indonesia and Thailand. The total assets under its management, advice and custody amount to RM8.36 billion.

Philip Mutual chief executive officer Munawir Mohammad said another two funds - Philip Master Dana Hafizh and Capital Protected Fund - would be launched in mid-July.

"We hope to achieve sales of RM100 million for the five funds in 12 months," he told reporters after launching the funds in Kuala Lumpur on June 18.

Munawir is confident of achieving the figure because each fund is designed to meet the needs of the individual investors.

Philip Master Money Market Fund aims to provide higher returns than savings deposits while maintaining a high degree of liquidity. Ninety per cent of the fund's asset will be invested in papers with maturity not more than a year.

Philip Master Equity Growth Fund aims to provide high capital growth over medium to long term through investment in growth and situational stocks.

Philip Master First Ethical Fund also aims to provide high capital growth over medium to long term through investment in undervalued stocks based on ethical guidelines that avoid gaming, alcohol, tobacco and military companies.

Munawir said the performance benchmark for the money market fund was the two per cent interest for savings deposits. As for the equity growth and ethical funds, the benchmark was the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange's Composite Index.