US-Malaysian joint venture Principal Asset Management plans to merge its two digital investment apps in Thailand into a “super app” in order to give users a “holistic” view of their portfolios, according to Juan Ignacio Eyzaguirre, the company’s Southeast Asia chief executive officer.
One of the apps allows users to track performance of their mutual funds and the other enables them to track performance of their retirement funds.
“Our objective now is to merge both apps into a super app in the fourth quarter of this year. By integrating the two apps, users will be able to have a holistic view on their investment portfolios. We hope to be able to serve our clients better with the integration,” Eyzaguirre says in an interview with Asia Asset Management.
Faced with competition from robo advisers, traditional fund management companies in Southeast Asia are moving into digital investment management, either by introducing their own digital investment apps or via partnerships. Thailand has at least four independent robo advisers.
Eyzaguirre says Principal deploys different strategies for different markets. In Indonesia, for example, the company launched its own app, but in Malaysia, it has teamed up with e-wallet provider TNG Digital. It launched a money market fund on TNG Digital’s GO+ platform in March and plans to add two more funds by the end of the year.
Principal Asset Management had 97.6 billion ringgit (US$23.66 billion) of assets under management as of end-March 2021. The company is 60% owned by US-based Principal Financial Group and 40% by Malaysian lender CIMB Group.
