HLG Unit Trust Bhd Increases Fund Size Of HLG Strategic Fund
KUALA LUMPUR – April 19: In response to the encouraging demand for its newly-launched equity growth and income fund, HLG Unit Trust Bhd has obtained approval to increase the fund size of the HLG Strategic Fund by 300 million units.
The HLG Strategic Fund, which was launched on March 8 2005, has charted sales of 452 million units from its launch date until April 15 2005.
HLG Unit Trust obtained approval from Securities Commission (SC) to increase the approved fund size of HLG Strategic Fund from the current 500 million units to 800 million units as of April 7 2005.
“With the new approved fund size of additional 300 million units, we are able to cope with market demand and the strong response from our investors,“ says Richard Lin, Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of HLG Asset Management Sdn Bhd. The HLG Strategic Fund has appealed to investors that are seeking diversification from traditional financial instruments to a more dynamic asset allocation strategy.
To promote the new fund, HLG Unit Trust has successfully organised a “Prospering in Wealth & Health” series of road show seminars that was held nationwide. In conjunction with the road show, HLG Unit Trust donated 60,000 units of HLG Strategic Fund, worth RM30,000, to the Heart Foundation.
The HLG Strategic Fund is the 15th Fund in HLG Unit Trust’s portfolio of funds. Currently, HLG Unit Trust Bhd already manages a diverse product range that includes a selection of Islamic Syariah-compliant unit trusts, growth funds, equity funds, balanced funds, sectoral funds as well as bond funds.
Earlier this year on January 6, HLG Unit Trust launched the HLG Dividend Fund, to overwhelming demand. With the addition of the two funds to its portfolio – HLG Dividend Fund and HLG Strategic Fund- HLG Unit Trust has increased its total fund size from RM 1.42 billion as at January 4 2005 to RM 1.85 billion as at 15 April 2005.
ABOUT HLG STRATEGIC FUND
The HLG Strategic Fund is a growth and income fund that belongs to a new and advanced class of funds that can be regarded as “smart” funds that can adjust to positive and negative economic cycles. Its chief distinctive feature is that the fund has built-in flexibility that supports intelligent and strategic weighting of its asset allocation between equity and fixed income assets, allowing it to adjust seamlessly in response to market dynamics.
To achieve strategic market timing, the HLG Strategic Fund is designed with maximum flexibility to make strategic changes in weightings of asset classes. There will not be any ‘floor’ or minimum weighting of a particular asset but the ‘ceiling’ maximum exposure of any particular weighting on either securities or fixed income securities (both local and foreign) is capped at 95%. The minimum weighting for liquid asset will be floored at 5%. In essence, the Fund is a dynamic fund that is able to manage its risk by positioning itself to pro-actively reflect market fundamentals, critical events and trends.
The Fund is designed to provide income on a best effort basis as well as strive for capital appreciation by actively investing in equity and equity-related securities. The Fund aims to provide investors with an investment that strives for stable returns as well as consistency in performance and income.
The Fund’s investment strategy is carefully crafted after assessing all macro and micro fundamentals depicting both the equity and bond market outlook. As the Fund is able to react quickly to market dynamics, the investment strategy can strictly adhere to the Fund’s objective of capital appreciation and continually enhancing returns to all investors without assuming higher risk.
The Fund’s investment strategy is to invest in companies with good income potential. The Fund is also willing to invest in companies that have longer term upside (over the next 12 to 24 months as long as the upside potential is attractive). Companies with high dividend yields will also be considered.
The Fund’s performance benchmark comprises of 2 components - the KLCI and Maybank 12-month Fixed Deposit Rate, where the weighting of each component will be adjusted according to the asset weighting of the Fund at the end of its financial year.
HLG Strategic Fund is managed by an external investment manager, HLG Asset Management Sdn Bhd, which is also managing the other existing funds for HLG Unit Trust Bhd. The HLG Strategic Fund has a total approved fund size of 500 million units priced at RM 0.50 per unit during the initial offer period (from March 8 2005 till March 28 2005). Minimum initial investment for HLG Strategic Fund is RM 1,000 while the minimum additional investment RM 100.
HLG Strategic Fund is distributed through both HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s agency force as well as Institutional Unit Trust Agents (IUTA). HLG Strategic Fund is available through all HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s existing IUTAs namely, CIMB Private Banking, Hong Leong Bank Berhad, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, OCBC Bank (Malaysia) Bhd and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia Berhad.
About HLG Unit Trust Bhd
Incorporated on October 5 1994, HLG Unit Trust Bhd is an established unit trust management company, and a member of the Hong Leong Group Malaysia. Its core business is the management of unit trust funds.
Here at HLG Unit Trust Bhd, everything we do reflects our tagline “Making Opportunities Work”. Making opportunities work is central to what we do. In the world of investment, it is all about being able to spot the right opportunities and at HLG Unit Trust Bhd, we strive to make them work for our investors.
Today, the company manages 15 unit trust funds, which are distributed nationwide through multiple channels. Direct and channel distribution activities are supported by the HLG Unit Trust Bhd’s strategic nationwide sales support infrastructure. This includes our headquarters in Kuala Lumpur and six sales support offices nationwide in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.