Strong focus on fundamentals
Malaysia’s Public Mutual continues to flex its muscles this year as the number one private unit trust company in the country, taking home five awards in the Asia Asset Management Best of the Best Awards 2022.
Public Mutual, under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Yeoh Kim Hong, has won the country awards for Best Retail House, Islamic Retail House of the Year, Best Islamic Fund - Equity Fund, Best Member Communications and Best Investor Education.
“We want to attribute these wins to our unitholders as well as our unit trust consultants for giving their unwavering support and trust to us. These wins certainly motivate us to continue working towards delivering long-term consistent returns to our investors,” Yeoh says.
Yeoh recalls that the year 2021 was a challenging year for asset managers, as newer coronavirus variants and the normalisation of monetary policies by major central banks led to periods of elevated market volatility. However, despite these challenges, the company managed to grow its retail funds’ total net asset value by 4.04% to 97.58 billion Malaysian ringgit (US$23.11 billion), with a commanding market share of 34.63%.
During the year, Public Mutual also registered strong growth in the Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) sector, with a net asset value gain of 20.46% to 2.59 billion Malaysian ringgit. Yeoh attributes the company’s growth to its investment philosophy.
“Our investment philosophy, which is based on adopting a fundamental approach to investing in companies which have resilient earnings, strong financial positions and proven management track records, has generally enabled our funds to ride through periods of elevated market volatility in 2021 to deliver long-term consistent returns to our investors,” Yeoh says.
Strength in Islamic investing The company has also managed to achieve success in the Islamic investing space.
“The performances of our domestic Islamic funds – including our winning fund, Public Islamic Opportunities Fund – were underpinned by their investments in selected healthcare, technology and basic materials stocks which benefitted from the current health and digitalisation trends due to the global pandemic as well as the strength in commodity prices,” she explains.
Yeoh adds that its foreign Islamic funds’ performances were bolstered by their investments within the technology and electric vehicle (EV) supply chains which are benefitting from the ongoing push towards automation and greener energy solutions.
“Their selected holdings of basic materials and industrial stocks were also leveraged to the improvement in global manufacturing activities in tandem with the global economic recovery,” Yeoh says.
As at end-2021, 48% of the company’s retail assets under management of 97.6 billion Malaysian ringgit were derived from Islamic funds. Yeoh expects the AUM of its Islamic funds to “grow steadily over time”.
“This is due to greater demand for Shariah-compliant products among Muslim investors as well as non-Muslim investors who are interested in funds that focus on ethical investments,” she says.
Emphasis on investor education
One of the key drivers for Public Mutual’s success today is its commitment to investor education. In 2021, the company posted more than 200 financial planning tips and advice to more than 40,000 followers on its social media platforms, as well as held more than 70 online talks and webinars on various investment-related topics, including retirement planning.
“We also sent out close to 40 electronic direct mailers (eDMs) that consist of financial planning tips, retirement planning as well as investment tips that aim to continuously educate and increase the financial literacy levels of our investors,” Yeoh says.
She adds that the company has always focused on advocating for investors to invest early and regularly so that they can meet financial goals such as saving for their children’s education, their retirement and other personal financial goals.
“We also promote the importance of having a long-term investment horizon and holding a diversified portfolio of funds to ride through periods of market volatility,” she says.
2022 outlook
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Yeoh expects the global economy to continue recovering this year, with the financial, energy, commodities, discretionary consumer and leisure sectors to benefit from the gradual lifting of pandemic restrictions in developed and developing nations.
“On the domestic front, sectors such as property, automobile, consumer and hospitality are also expected to see a rebound in earnings as the re-opening of the economy leads to a resumption of business activities and domestic consumption,” she says.