New fund focuses on growth and dividend prospects of European companies
Kuala Lumpur, November 15- HLG Unit Trust Bhd (HLG UT) today launched the HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund. The new Fund would invest primarily in equity and equity-related securities of large and mid cap European companies.
HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund is a growth and income fund that aims to provide investors with regular income and medium-to-long term capital growth. The Fund would invest into a diversified investment portfolio of equities and equity-related securities of European companies, selected according to their growth and dividend prospects. At the same time, the Fund will also invest into fixed income securities for liquidity management purpose and stability of capital.
The HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund is designed for investors who are seeking participation in both equity income and capital growth while minimising volatility. The Fund is also suitable for investors who are seeking greater diversification in their investment holdings through European exposure as well as a more defensive stance on the European equity market.
“The Fund would be utilising a combination of two investment strategies, namely, a ‘European Dividend’ strategy and a ‘European Growth’ strategy. The aim is to combine a more defensive strategy (European Dividend) with a returns enhancing strategy (European Growth) for our investors,” said Richard Lin, Executive Director and CEO of HLG Asset Management Sdn Bhd.
BNP Paribas Asset Management [BNPP AM] has been appointed as the external foreign investment manager to manage the Fund’s investments in securities of European companies. BNPP AM is a major European-based fund manager with global reach – managing a mixture of different asset classes and clientele. As at 30 June 2007, it has EUR €356 billion (RM1.7 trillion) of assets under management.
“We are excited to provide our investors an opportunity to invest in the biggest economic region in the world,” said Lin. "We are confident that with our appointed fund manager BNPP AM’s expertise in this European market, the Fund would be able to provide investors exposure to the European market with potentially attractive returns,” he added.
The asset allocation for the HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund would be a minimum of 70% in equities and equity-related securities of European companies and a maximum of 30% in fixed income investments. The performance of the Fund is benchmarked against MSCI Europe.
The new fund will play an important role in positioning HLG Unit Trust Bhd as among the major unit trust players in the industry. The inclusion of the HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund increases HLG Unit Trust’s portfolio of managed funds to 25. Other funds currently managed are from a diverse range of products that include a selection of Islamic Shariah-compliant unit trusts, growth funds, equity funds, balanced funds, sectoral funds as well as bond funds. The strength of the investment management of its Funds have been recognised as evident by the 2 awards won at the recent Standard and Poor’s 2007 Malaysia Fund Awards. Its HLG Dana Maa’rof emerged as the winner of the Asset Alloc Islamic Neutral (3 year) Category whereas its HLG Bond Fund was the winner of the Fixed Income MYR (1 year) Category.
The HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund has a total approved fund size of 600 million units priced at RM 0.50 per unit during the initial offer period (from 15 November 2007 till 5 December 2007). Minimum initial investment for HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund is RM 1,000 while the minimum additional investment is RM 100.
HLG European Dividend-Growth Fund is distributed through both HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s agency force and through selected Institutional Unit Trust Advisers (IUTA) namely, United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad.
About HLG Unit Trust Bhd
Incorporated on October 5 1994, HLG Unit Trust Bhd is an established unit trust management company, and a member of the Hong Leong Group Malaysia. Its core business is the management of unit trust funds.
The company already manages 25 unit trust funds to date, which are distributed nationwide through multiple channels. Direct and channel distribution activities are supported by the HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s strategic nationwide sales support infrastructure. This includes our headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and six sales support offices nationwide in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
As at October 31 2007, HLG Unit Trust Bhd has a combined total fund size of RM 2.27 billion.