AS1M open for selling on 5th August

The return rate seems to be capped around 3.7 to 4%. A bit pessimistic?

Amanah Saham 1Malaysia To Open From August 5

KUALA LUMPUR, July 31 (Bernama) -- Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS 1Malaysia), an
all-Malaysian fund managed by Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB), will be opened for public subscription from August 5, 2009.

The fixed price equity fund will be priced at RM1.00 per unit with a total fund size of 10 billion units.

The AS 1Malaysia, the biggest fund offering by PNB so far, was launched Friday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

PNB chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said the AS1Malaysia will be opened for a 30-day offer period from August 5 to Sept 3, 2009.

During the offer period, the AS 1Malaysia will not incur any sale charges, Hamad Kama Piah said.

The minimum initial investment is 100 units while the minimum additional investment is one unit, he said at a media briefing here today.

Hamad Kama Piah said the fund will invest in Malaysian companies with its yield benchmark according to five-year Malaysian government yields which currently ranged from 3.7 to 4.0 percent.

He said that some PNB funds provided returns as high as 6.3 percent. 

During the offer period, subscription of the units is subject to an allocation of 50 percent for Bumiputeras, 30 percent for Chinese, 15 percent for Indians and the remaining five percent for other minorities.

To ensure wider participation from the investing public, the maximum investment limit during the 30-day offer period has been set at 50,000 units per accountholder for those aged between 18 and 55, Hamad Kama Piah said.

The maximum investment limit for those aged above 55 is set at 10O,000 units per accountholder, he said, adding that the maximum investment limit will be void after the offer period.

PNB, Maybank, RHB Bank and Pos Malaysia will jointly contribute 100 free units of the AS 1Malaysia to nearly 50,000 first-year undergraduate students who recently enrolled at public higher learning institutions for the 2009 academic session, Hamad Kama Piah said.

To date, PNB is managing a total fund size of about RM120 billion.

-- BERNAMA