Aberdeen targets SMEs for provident funds

Aberdeen Asset Management is targeting SMEs in the hope of bringing total assets of provident funds to Bt4 billion by year end.

Sujaree Junsawang, director and acting chief executive officer, said that its current total assets under management were Bt25 billion, up 13.64 per cent from last year-end. Of that, Bt22.9 billion is mutual funds, up 20.53 per cent from end-December.

"The company's strong point is managing mutual funds focusing on investments in equity and debt instruments both domestically and internationally," she said.

Since entering the Thai market a decade ago, the company has expanded its fund management into provident funds, starting from Bt3.3 billion in fund value with 30,000 provident members.

Sujaree said Aberdeen's newest service for provident-fund management was the Master Pooled Fund, under which employees who are provident-fund members could have several choices for their investments to maximise their returns when they retire.

They can choose from the company's four selected good-performance funds: the open-ended Aberdeen Cash Creation Fund, the open-ended Aberdeen Income Creation Fund, the Aberdeen Growth Fund, and the open-ended Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Fund.

Sujaree added that the company's clients could opt for two types of investments - Free Choices, under which they can mix the four funds as desired, and Pre-Set Choices, under which the members can opt from lowest up to highest risks. The members are also allowed to shift their investment policies twice a year.

"The Master Pooled Fund will focus on clients that are listed companies, from small to medium sized and foreign firms," said Sujaree, adding that the provident funds' size would be varied from Bt50 million to Bt200 million.

"We expect the Master Pooled Fund's size should be Bt1 billion by early next year and Bt2 billion by next year-end," she said.

For more.