Asset managers focusing on fixed-income funds
SCB Asset Management (SCBAM) plans to launch 40 new funds this year aimed at adding another Bt60 billion to the Bt164.55 billion worth of assets under its management.
SCBAM, an asset-management unit of Siam Commercial Bank, plans to close the gap of time when a short-term fixed-income fund's maturity ends by launching six-month and one-year fixed-income funds each month. This is aimed at retaining customers at a time when short-term fund maturity ends. The firm posted growth of 118.28 per cent in its mutual-fund business last year, thanks to 25 fixed-income funds, which raised Bt60.79 billion last year. The firm's Quality Houses Property Fund also contributed to the total asset size after raising Bt7.97 billion late last year. Earlier, Kasikorn Asset Management (Kasset), an asset-management firm of Kasikornbank, also announced its business plan this year involved launching a series of fixed-income funds to close the gap of maturity. SCBAM a few years earlier announced it would grow ahead of Kasset to become the country's largest mutual-fund player. SCBAM has been closing the gap so far, thanks to strong support from sales made at more than 800 branches of Siam Commercial Bank. It briefly beat Kasset to reign at the top in the final week of December, but in the first week of this month, Kasset was back on top with Bt164.21 billion worth of assets under management, while SCBAM slipped to second with Bt161.56 billion. Kasset maintained its top position last week with Bt165.74 billion, while SCBAM followed with Bt164.55 billion. SCBAM senior executive vice president Patcharin Techakehakit said the drop was due to the fact that some of its funds had matured. Kampol Adsavakulchai, executive vice president of SCBAM's mutual-fund group, said that at first, one of the company's planned property funds was in line to be launched in the first half of this year. However, due to the Bank of Thailand's 30-per-cent reserve requirement, the project was put on hold to see what the outcome would be. Chukiat Titihirunjaroen, chief investment officer of SCBAM's investment group, said the company remained bullish on the Thai stock market. "When the regulator has a clear direction for the rules and regulations, the market will rebound. The company believes that in the long term, the oulook for the stock market is bullish," said Chukiat.
Piyarat Setthasiriphaiboon The Nation
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