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Published on January 14, 2008

"The increase in AUM will be mainly driven by property funds, foreign investment funds [FIF] and private funds. We will set up a private fund immediately the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] approves," ING Funds managing director Maris Tarab said.

The company has made plans to launch 3-4 property funds with a combined asset size of Bt6 billion to Bt7 billion to invest in hotels, serviced apartments and warehouses, he said.

The firm is waiting for approval from the securities watchdog before issuing another property fund to invest exclusively in six power plants. It is possible this fund will yield a double-digit return, compared with 5- to 9-per-cent return from the regular property fund, Maris said.

"Issue of such a fund is subject to SEC approval as it is investment in a business not on the current property-fund list," he said.

ING Funds is planning to introduce an FIF invest in short-term government, state-enterprise and corporate bonds. The fund's initial public offering will be made between Thursday and 24. He forecast that short-term and fixed-income funds would be the most popular with fund managers this year, followed by FIFs.

ING Funds will slow down its plan to open kiosks in convenience stores this year, as selling mutual funds through bank branches has been popular with investors, he said.

With regard to its parent firm ING acquiring a major stake in TMB Bank, Maris said he could not tell at the moment if TMB Asset Management would be merged with ING Funds.

"At the moment, both firms operate separately. Whether the merger takes place depends on both boards of directors," he said.

"Being optimistic, we are satisfied that our parent firm holds a major stake in TMB Bank.

"It will widen our selling channel, because the bank has around 400 branches nationwide," he said.

Siriporn Chanjndamanee

The Nation