HSBC aiming for 15% higher unit trust sales

HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd is projecting a 15% increase in unit trust sales this year, from RM1.1bil last year. 

Personal financial services general manager U Chen Hock said the company was confident of achieving the target because investors were more knowledgeable about unit trust funds these days. 

HSBC's agreement with RHB Unit Trust Management Bhd (RHBUT) for the distribution of the latter's RHB Mudharabah Funds would also help it achieve its target, he told reporters after signing a distribution agreement with RHBUT in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. 

Under the agreement, HSBC Bank will add the RHB Mudharabah Fund to its portfolio of RHB Unit Trust funds it now distributes: the RHB Bond Fund and RHB Islamic Bond Fund. 

Out of 230 unit trust funds available in the market, U said HSBC now provided 23 third party unit trust funds and its customers were mainly locals. 

He said HSBC had applied stringent selection criteria on third party unit trust products, especially their performance, track record and fund size. 

U said HSBC has nearly 500 sales personnel to market the unit trust funds. 

Meanwhile, RHBUT yesterday donated RM260,000 from its Mudharabah Fund Community Programme to 26 needy and underprivileged organisations.  

Its chief executive officer Michael Tan Lib Chau said the donations came from the investments that the fund had made in the six months ended Aug 31, 2003. 

The RHB Mudharabah Fund, which is Syariah-compliant, is one of seven funds and four sub-funds managed by RHBUT. As at March 31, 2004, it had a fund size of RM149.74mil and 209.54 million units in circulation. 

For the financial year ended Feb 29, 2004, the RHB Mudharabah Fund managed to distribute a net income of 4.72 sen compared with only 1.9865 sen for 2003. 

RHBUT managed a total fund size of RM1.33bil as at March 31, 2004. – Bernama