Thursday November 2, 2006

By SUSAN TAM

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia should create more Islamic wealth management products to capitalise on the increasing interest from high net worth individuals from the Middle East. 

Member of the Central Syariah Advisory Council for Bank Negara and Securities Commission, Dr Mohd Daud Bakar, said it was time for Malaysia to take advantage of this interest by providing a range of products for investors. 

“Investors are increasingly interested in investing in this region. They are keen on sukuk products, equity-linked notes and structured products.  

Dr Mohd Daud Bakar (left) and Dr Tan Chong Koay at the fund launch.

“Equity-linked products are also appealing to all investors, retail and corporate,” he said at a briefing to launch the Pheim Asia Ex-Japan (PAXJ) Islamic Fund yesterday. 

Dr Mohd Daud is also president and chief executive officer of Amanie Business Solutions Sdn Bhd, which is the adviser to Pheim Unit Trusts Bhd, responsible for launching PAXJ Islamic Fund. The latter is a wholly-owned unit of Pheim Asset Management Sdn Bhd. 

Dr Mohd Daud said Malaysia should step up efforts to tap the global Islamic financial market, projected to grow from an estimated US$700bil in 2005 to US$1.4 trillion by 2010 and US$2.8 trillion by 2015.  

He said Malaysia had the adequate infrastructure to be an Islamic finance hub, but lacked the products to lure more investors. 

Pheim Group founder and director Dr Tan Chong Koay said the PAXJ Islamic Fund would give investors a chance to tap into high-growth investment opportunities in Asia and in the Islamic financial market. 

“We believe that Asian equities will emerge as one of the global asset classes that have the potential to deliver superior returns,” he said. 

Dr Tan said this was due to the strong regional economic outlook and renewed focus of corporations and governments in strengthening business fundamentals. 

“Also, there has been an increasing number of companies with capital appreciation potential, specifically in small to medium-sized entities,” he added. 

PAXJ Islamic Fund has an approved size of up to 200 million of RM1 units and is benchmarked against absolute annual returns of 7% in the long term. 

Dr Tan said up to 95% of the funds would be invested in syariah-compliant equities in South-East Asia. A minimum of 5% would be kept as liquid assets or cash, and could be invested in syariah-compliant fixed income instruments. 

He also said that to date, all the funds launched by the firm had outperformed their respective benchmarks since inception. 

The PAXJ Islamic Fund is the company’s fifth unit trust fund and the second syariah-compliant after Dana Makmur Pheim, a domestic balanced fund launched in 2002. 

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