The Edge 29 Mac 2022 (Selasa)

W24 Presented by

MARCH 28
2022

Manulife Investment Management bags an award

MB Y VANESSA GOMES “We focus on knowing our companies well, FUND Manulife Investment
anulife Investment Management leveraging our in-depth understanding of mar-
(M) Bhd bagged a fund award at kets and the business environment that these AWARD Shariah Progress Fund
the Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards companies operate in.We identify mispricing
2022. Its Manulife Investment as they occur and take advantage of them,re- FUND SIZE Equity Malaysia Diversified
Shariah Progress Fund won the gardless of whether the companies exhibit FUND MANAGER
award for Best Equity Malaysia growth,value or defensive profiles. (Provident) (10 years)
Diversified (Provident) in the 10-year catego- RETURNS FOR PERIODS
ry, when it achieved a cumulative return of We focus on “This approach enables us to extract alpha ENDED DEC 31, 2021 (%) RM603.87 million
174.25% over the period. knowing our from different sources of market inefficien-
Manulife Investment Management CEO companies cies. Our approach to research and for port- Affin Hwang Asset
Jason Chong attributes the win to the fund well, leveraging folio construction is a ‘conviction-building’
house’s focus on instilling investors’ confi- our in-depth process and structured to ensure that our bet Management Bhd
dence in its products by building a strong understanding
performance track record. of markets and size reflects the extent of our conviction for 1 year 6.04
“We believe that investing in companies the business any given investment.Our long-term in-
with solid and scalable business models,good environment vestment approach is derived by iden- 3 years 47.49
earnings potential,steady cash flows,solid bal- that these tifying multi-year themes and sector
ance sheets and strong management teams will companies trends rather than a simple ‘buy and 5 years 50.43
generate superior and sustainable returns to operate in.” hold’ strategy.”
shareholders over time,” says Chong. > Chong Chong says the biggest challenge 10 years 174.25
He adds that Manulife’s investment philos- that the Manulife team faced last
ophy is premised on delivering returns based year was market volatility and that on stock picking to generate alpha. Market
on an absolute return target over a three-year the fund house employed tactical volatility also presented trading opportunities,
rolling period, through various market con- asset allocation to protect such as the current selldown in the technolo-
ditions (and not merely outperforming the capital and as ammunition gy sector.There is still a lot of potential for the
benchmark).For this purpose,Chong says the for bottom-fishing stocks. small-mid-cap space to outperform, as com-
fund house employs active management in “Owing to market vol- panies are less affected by the prosperity tax
their investment strategies. atility, our cash levels and have stronger earnings growth,” he says.
He says the fund house invests based on ranged from 10% to 25% In addition,Chong says the Malaysian mar-
fundamentals, as opposed to benchmarking during the year.We adopt- ket was in a downward channel last year,ow-
their portfolios. “We are stock-pickers with a ed a more tactical trading ing to a series of negative news flows,such as
top-down overlay,where most of our effort is approach,given the market the Movement Control Orders,political uncer-
spent on identifying themes,sectors and stocks uncertainty, with a lot of tainty and prosperity tax. On top of that, the
where excess returns can be derived. rotational plays in the same country saw local institutional funds selling
sector,especially tech,as well their assets to fund withdrawals, especially
as among different sectors. the Employees Provident Fund and the sharp
“The fund relies primarily reversal in the gloves sector.
Nevertheless,Chong says Manulife Invest-
ment Management managed to generate de-
cent positive returns despite the negative
performance of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI,
as the fund house was overweight on technol-
ogy,which he says had a few bright spots,and
avoided gloves stocks.
E

PMB Investment wins award by
G seeking out undervalued stocks

PB Y KUEK SER KWANG ZHE last year’s uncertainties included domestic FUND PMB Dana Mutiara
MB Investment Bhd’s Dana Muti- political changes,a mixed and slower recov- AWARD
ara won the award for Best Equity ery among emerging-market economies and Equity Malaysia Income
Malaysia Income (Islamic) in the a less market-friendly Budget 2022. FUND SIZE
three-year category by generating a FUND MANAGER (Islamic) (3 years)
total return of 52.93% as at end-2021. “However,we managed to overcome the RETURNS FOR PERIODS
CEO Mahani Ibrahim attributes challenges by adopting a bottom-up approach ENDED DEC 31, 2021 (%) RM10.77 million
the win to the firm’s investment philosophy to arrive at our investment decisions,assisted
of seeking outperformance by identifying, Local fund by the relative-strength technical analysis,” Isnami Ahmad Mohtar
evaluating and investing in undervalued managers have says Mahani.
stocks whose potential has yet to be realised to diversify their 1 year 7.83
by the market. investments A more frequent rebalancing of
“In equity investment, we use both top- overseas markets its portfolio last year also con- 3 years 52.93
down and bottom-up approaches to arrive to provide a tributed to the fund’s outper-
at our investment decisions. In terms of reasonable formance. “As an equity fund, 5 years NA
strategy,we place great emphasis on equity return to we allocated at least 70% of in-
allocation so that our portfolio outperforms unitholders, vestors’ money to equities.We 10 years NA
the benchmark index on an annual basis,” without did more rebalancing exercis-
she says. neglecting the es and traded more frequently Moving forward,Mahani expects the local
The firm also adopts and combines fun- local market.” last year on the back of market to record a positive performance and
damental and technical analysis to arrive > Mahani a volatile market.Our the FBM KLCI to end at about 1,650 points
at its investment decisions. “We use fun- cash balance varied by the end of the year. The firm will main-
damental analysis to select companies, or throughout the dif- tain its investment strategy by using rela-
stock universe,and technical analysis for the ferent periods and tive performance analysis and adopting an
entry and exit of stocks.As for the winning was between 5% active investment management approach.
fund,we employ relative-strength analysis and 30% last year,” “As Dana Mutiara is classified as an equi-
for stock selection as well.” she says. ty fund, we will have at least 70% exposure
Market volatilitywas the biggest challenge “The same in- to equities. The fund is currently focusing
last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic that vestment strat- on the technology and industrial product
has continued to rage globally.That prompted egy — which is sectors.We aim to generate a return of 10%
the government to impose another round of more active — this year,” she says.
Full Movement Control Order in the middle will continue to However,investing in foreign markets is
of last year.Other factors that contributed to be employed this expected to be equally important this year.As
year,as we expect the at Feb 18,the FBM KLCI recorded a return of
stock market to re- -5.3% in the past three years and was among
main volatile.” the worst stock market performers globally.
“Local fund managers have to diversi-
fy their investments overseas markets to
provide a reasonable return to unithold-
ers, without neglecting the local market,”
says Mahani.
E

Presented by W25

MARCH 28
2022

Eastspring Investments Bhd executive director and CEO Raymond Tang (centre) and his team

Affin Hwang Asset Management Bhd deputy managing director David Ng David Ng (seated, centre) and the fixed income team
(seated, centre) and the firm’s equity team

Pheim Asset Management Sdn Bhd founder and chief strategist Dr Tan Chong Koay (in batik) and his team

W26 Presented by

MARCH 28
2022

AmanahRaya Investment Management managing director and CEO Roszali Ramlee (centre) and his team

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2009

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