2.7 Billion AS1M Units Sold

A total of 2.7 billion Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS1M) units have been sold so far, said Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) group chief executive Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman said Tuesday.

The quota for Chinese investors had been 75 per cent taken up, he told reporters after PNB handed over business tithe totalling RM2.2 million to the Penang State Islamic Religious Council here.

He said PNB would hold a series of awareness campaign beginning Oct 20 in Kelantan on AS1M, the fixed price fund with a size of RM10 billion units launched on July 31, 2009 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

AS1M is open to all Malaysians with an allocation of 50 per cent for Bumiputeras, 30 per cent for Chinese, 15 per cent for Indians and five percent for other ethnic groups.

Over AS 1Malaysia Units 1.6 Bln Units Sold

Pemodalan Nasional Bhd's (PNB) Amanah Saham 1 Malaysia (AS 1Malaysia) has sold 1.67 billion units, its president/chief executive officer, Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman, said Tuesday.

He said the response to the fund was encouraging with subscription on the first day of sales exceeded that sold by other fixed funds like ASW 2020 and ASM.

"If you compare with ASM and ASW 2020, this product is better. On the first day, it sold 1.4 billion units.

"Compared with ASM and ASW 2020, the response was encouraging," he told reporters after the finals of Investment Quiz Contest PNB 2009 (Secondary Schools) and PNB's Smart Investment Club Debate here today.

AS 1Malaysia, with approved fund size of RM10 billion, is offered to Malaysians aged 18 and above at RM1 each.

The public can invest in at least 100 units.

For those aged under 55 they can buy a maximum of 50,000 units and 100,000 units for those aged 55 and above.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak launched the fund on July 31, 2009.

Hamad Kama Piah said for the Chinese community its quota was 50 percent sold.

"This is unlike other unit trusts sold by PNB where the quota for the Chinese community would be taken up within two days of the launch," he said.

He said the reason could be PNB benchmarked the fund's returns against the average five-year Malaysian Government Securities yield, which currently has a trading yield of 3.73 per cent.

For ASW 2020 and ASM, he said, PNB used the three-month Kuala Lumpur Inter-Bank Offered Rate.

"When they understand the situation, I hope they will continue to invest and not wait until the last minute," he said.

Amanah Saham 1Malaysia vs ASM/ASW2020

Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS 1Malaysia), which is the largest fund currently will be opened for public subscription from 5th August - 3rd September 2009(30-day offer period). During the offer period, the AS 1Malaysia will not incur any sale charges.

Same as previous Amanah Saham Malaysia and Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020, the minimum initial investment for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia is 100 units while the minimum top up investment is one unit. It will be priced at RM1.00 per unit with a total fund size of 10 billion units.

Everybody knows how Amanah Saham works: Place in RM1,000 or so, and wait till the end of the year to get your “dividend”. That’s it.



The units is subject to an allocation of:
- 50% for Bumiputeras
- 30% for Chinese (So, there will be 3 billions allocated for the Chinese)
- 15% for Indians
- 5% for other races.

Why Amanah Saham 1Malaysia is Launched?
Amanah Saham 1Malaysia is launched to stimulate the local stock market and other investment instruments so that the industry can pick up through new capital investment and provide more employment opportunities.

Where to Invest Amanah Saham 1Malaysia?
Investment in cash are available at:
- CIMB
- Maybank
- RHM
- Post Office (I suggest you to buy at post office because it opens at 8:30am while bank open 9:15am or 9:30am)

Comparison Between Amanah Saham 1Malaysia and ASM/ ASW2020
The maximum investment limit for Amanah Saham 1Malaysia has been set at 50,000 units per accountholder for those aged between 18 and 55 while Amanah Saham Malaysia had been set at 20,000 units per accountholder.

For me, AS 1Malaysia is not as good as other PNB funds. This is because:

My view no. 1: Other PNB trust funds like ASM and ASW2020 give out dividend based on the returns of their investment portfolios, which are 95% equity and 5% others. Their returns have been consistently above 6% over the years. Of course, this does not mean that it cannot go lower than 6%.

For AS 1Malaysia, the returns are to be benchmarked against the returns from the Malaysian Government Securities, which mostly come from bond fund. This is between 3.7% - 4% only. So, I think that AS 1Malaysia may not give out dividends higher than 6%.

My view no. 2: While ASM and ASW2020 have a fixed unit price of RM1, they do not have the transactions charges. That basically means, when you invested RM1000 into ASW2020, you will get 1000 units. But for AS 1Malaysia, there may have transaction charges AFTER the offer period (from 5th Aug 2009 - 3rd September).

My view no. 3: AS 1Malaysia with 10 billion units are too big for the fund to be manageable in a proper manner. Based on my understanding, the fund is almost performing as bad when the fund was close to 2 billion units although many experts think that 2 billion is just nice manageable amount of investment.

My conclusion is, go buy AS 1Malaysia if you have extra cash in the bank. The returns should be higher than the current bank’s interest rates. But it will probably not be as attractive as ASM or ASW2020.

Good Response For AS1M Units

The sale of Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (AS 1Malaysia) shares got off to an Overwhelming start on Wednesday.

As Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) in Jalan Tun Razak here opened its doors for business at 8am, more than 250 people were already lining up to subscribe to the 10 billion shares on offer to Malaysians.

PNB chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman described the initial response as a good beginning.

"You can see the (crowd)...See for yourself but what's more important is the acceptance. We must make sure the opportunity is given to everybody," he told reporters at the launch.

This is the first time the PNB, the country's largest fund manager, handling funds totalling more than RM19.2 billion, has allocated 50 per cent of the shares for Bumiputeras, Chinese (30 per cent), Indians (15 per cent) and the remaining five per cent to other minority ethnic groups.

The quota-based share subscription is fixed for 30 days until Sept 3. Thereafter, the unsold units will be opened to all races.