OCBC upbeat on Eurozone Index Beta Fund's performance

KUALA LUMPUR: OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, the exclusive distributor of the newly-launched series of funds managed by RHB Asset Management Sdn Bhd, is upbeat on the RHB-OSK Eurozone Index Beta Fund's long-term performance.

The Beta funds, Malaysia's first series of single Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)-based products, are designed to track the performance of their underlying index as closely as possible. 

OCBC Vice-President Research and Content, Wealth Management, Michael Lai said he was optimistic over the Eurozone Index Beta Fund, due to the European Central Bank's effort in stimulating growth by launching an aggressive sovereign-bond purchase program.

"We are optimistic that the quantitative easing (QE) in Europe will work and furthermore, business and consumer confidence is moving up, compared with six months back.

"The QE will allow banks to lend more, thus helping the economy to grow.

So, we are confident that the Eurozone will recover," he told reporters after the launch of the funds here today.

Other newly-launched products in the series are the RHB-OSK US Index Beta Fund, the RHB-OSK Japan Index Fund and the RHB-OSK Emerging Asia Index Beta Fund.

RHB Asset Management, chief executive officer and regional head of group retail distribution, Ho Seng Yee is confident that the Beta funds would fill a significant gap in the Malaysian asset management market.

"This collaboration with OCBC will provide investors with a different access in their investment approaches when building their portfolios," he added.

Sales fees for the Beta funds are set at 2%, significantly less than the usual 5% for actively managed funds.

Subscriptions to the funds are open to qualified investors.

They are namely, individuals whose total net personal assets or total net joint assets with their spouse exceed RM3mil, or individuals with a gross annual income exceeding RM300,000 or who jointly with their spouse have a gross annual income exceeding RM400,000. - Bernama