KUALA LUMPUR: PMB Investment Bhd plans to introduce a Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) as early as this year or the first half of next year.
Its chief executive officer Najmi Mohamed said the introduction of PRS will depend on the performance of the newly launched fund, the PMB Shariah Asean Stars Equity Fund (PMB SASEF).
He said if the new fund and its asset under management (AUM) performs well for the first six months, the company would speed up the introduction of the PRS.
"We want to see the development of PMB SASEF first and if the return is what we expected – a double digit growth and also in terms of size. If the fund met our target within these six months, maybe we will launch it (PRS) as soon as this year.
"We plan to launch the PRS because most of our investors are baby boomers between the ages of 50 and 60. We want to encourage young people to invest with PMB to help them have enough funds for their retirement, " he told reporters after the launch of PMB SASEF here yesterday.
Also present at the launching ceremony was Pelaburan MARA Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Nazim Rahman.
Elaborating on the new fund, Najmi said PMB aimed to achieve a starting fund size of between US$30 million and US$50 million this year.
He said the fund would also be part of a contributor to the company's target of achieving its AUM target of RM1.9 billion by the end 2018, and currently stands at RM1.1 billion.
PMB SASEF is investing in five Asean countries – Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore.
As of February 2018, there are 3,286 companies listed on the Asean stock exchange. Out of that, 1,720 companies or 47.7 percent are shariah-compliant equities stocks and from that percentile, 300 largest shariah-compliant companies by market capitalisation will be selected for PMB SASEF.
“The net asset value (NAV) of five Asean countries is US$2.6 trillion including shariah and conventional stocks. From this value, only US$860 billion of stocks are selected for PMB SASEF investment,” said Najmi.
PMB SASEF is its first multi-currency fund and the 15th unit trust fund by the Islamic investment management company offered at a starting price of as low as 50 sen or US$0.50 per unit.
The initial investment for the fund is RM1,000 or US$1,000 for individual investors and RM10,000 or US$10,000 for corporate investors.
The minimum additional investment is RM100 or US$100 for individual investors and RM1,000 or US$1,000 for corporate investors.