Berjaya Mutual chief investment officer Datuk Dr Nazri Khan, Berjaya Capital Bhd CEO Lukman Musa, Berjaya Corp Bhd founder and advisor Tan Sri Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, Berjaya Mutual chairperson Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim Ismail and Berjaya Mutual chief executive officer Eugene Chew Boon Chye. — MUHAMAD SHAHRIL ROSLI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Berjaya Mutual Sdn Bhd plans to increase its asset under management (AUM) to RM5bil by 2026 from about RM1bil currently.
Chief executive officer Eugene Chew Boon Chye said the group has earmarked eight new products to be launched this year, with three – Private Mandate Income Generator Series 1, BM Bond Fund 1 and Berjaya Mutual Wholesale Cash Fund – already rolled out this month.
“These three products are expected to bring in about RM100mil in AUM. We have two more offerings targeted to be launched in June and the remaining three planned for the second half of this year,” he said at the launch of Berjaya Mutual yesterday.
Investing into a mix of fixed-income securities, US equity and money market instruments, the three products launched earlier this month have a targeted net return of 6% to 8% per annum for blended investments and 3% for pure money market instruments.
Moreover, the other five products will consist of funds investing in foreign equity and fixed-income securities, with a targeted AUM of RM200mil to RM300mil and a targeted investment net return of 6% to 8% per annum.
Chew said the company also has products planned for the next two years, with eight slated for 2025 and nine for 2026, investing into different asset classes like fixed-income equity.
There will also be more innovative products like digital assets and structured products, in concert with strategic product partners.
“This is how we are going to penetrate the market, especially in terms of our unserved and underserved market segments, where, for example, for our private mandates, we have a lower entry level compared to other fund managers in the industry.
“Typically, if you were to engage a fund manager to manage your monies, via private mandate structure, you have to put in at least RM250,000.
“For us, we open up this opportunity for people to come in at RM50,000, to give them the opportunity for their monies to be managed by licensed professionals,” he said.
Formerly known as Inter-Pacific Asset Management Sdn Bhd, Berjaya Mutual has unveiled its rebranding initiative. The company said the exercise is timely as it plans to launch its client on-boarding portal, client portal and distributor portal this year.
“The new look and feel of Berjaya Mutual, coupled with our upcoming digital platforms and portals, are expected to attract and resonate well with the younger generation, especially Gen Z. It also aims to make the client investment experience with us more enriching,” the asset management company said.
On this note, chief investment officer Datuk Nazri Khan said given that Malaysia has a very young population, the company expects about 20% to 30% of its future funds to come from Gen Z or related to Gen Z.
“Our plan is to engage Gen Z by leveraging current digital social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook. We aim to educate them using our digital apps, which we will launch later,” he said.
About 30% of Berjaya Mutual’s investors are individual retail investors while 70% are institutional.
Chew said the company also plans to launch syariah-compliant products.
“The product pipeline that we have will be a mixture between conventional and syariah funds. One special feature that we are looking at is to have syariah products with a wakaf feature.
“This allows our investors to not only invest to earn returns for themselves but also offers them to have the chance to contribute via wakaf. We will be balancing between conventional and syariah funds as part of our product pipeline,” he said.
