Asset managers ready to pounce

Ayudhya Fund Management (AYF) has introduced a moneymar¬ket fund called AYFCASH for wary investors to park their money during the bear market.

The fund offers a higher return than that available from bank savings accounts.

Over the last three months, AYFCASH's return was an annu¬alised 2.73 per cent, compared to a sav¬ings rate of just 0.75 per cent offered by banks.

But this service is not suitable for day traders, who buy and sell the same stock in one day, because AYFCASH is a moneymarket fund that requires customers to pay their money in on the day after making a transaction.

The fund size is Bt5.244 billion and has an AAA rating from the Thai Rating and Information Service.

AYF chief executive officer Chatrapee Tantixalerm said investors would receive an annual return of about 2.73 per cent, which is better than what is on offer from savings accounts.

The company has agreements with Ayudhya Securities and DBS Vickers Securities, who recommend AYF¬CASH to their customers. Phatra Securities is also expected to partici¬pate and AYF is seeking partnerships with other securities companies.

"Our policy is to keep the net asset value positive every day and more than 90 per cent of the fund's assets are invested in government bonds. Therefore it is quite secure. This year we expect the fund to grow by hun¬dreds of millions of baht by following this policy," Chatrapee said.

Mongkhol Kittipoomvong, man¬aging director of Ayudhya Securities, said that if a customer was in urgent need of their money, they could tell the company to transfer money to them via the Automatic Transfer System.

While assetmanagement firms are seeking brokers as partners, bro¬kers are also seeking assetmanage¬ment firms as partners.

Piyachon Jaijongkit, director of private wealth man¬agement at DBS Vickers Securities, said the company would seek agree¬ments with other fundmanagement companies to offer similar services because the company aims to provide more choices for its cus¬tomers.

"While the econo¬my is slowing, there is not much trading in stocks, therefore while waiting for the situation to improve, investors can benefit from parking their money with us. In addi¬tion to a better return than from sav¬ings accounts, you also do not have to pay tax," Chatrapee said. 

Earlier, Kasikorn Asset Management joined with Kasikorn Securities in offering a similar serv¬ice with its KTreasury Fund, which has more than 90 per cent of its port¬folio invested in shortterm govern¬ment bonds. Over the last three months, the annualised return was 2.81 per cent and the net asset value stands at Bt11.0543, while the fund size now exceeds Bt83 billion.