Jakarta's first mutual fund works to whet appetite
Jakarta's first mutual fund works to whet appetite
JAKARTA (JP): An executive of PT BDNI Reksadana, the first mutual fund listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX), said that in the medium term (three to five years) a mutual fund is able to offer a return of 16 percentage points higher than time deposits.
"Based on our experience at BDNI Reksadana, I would say that within three to five years, the net asset value of a mutual fund can grow by 35 percent per annum as compared to about 19 percent by time deposits," said a director of BDNI Reksadana, Karmady Arief.
Karmady told reporters here yesterday that in three and a half months, the net asset value of BDNI Reksadana has grown by 8.14 percent and in twelve months it may increase by 27 percent.
BDNI Reksadana was listed on the JSX on Oct. 16 last year after offering 600 million shares with a face value of Rp 500 (21.6 U.S. cents) on the primary market.
The face value of Rp 500, which was also the fund's share price, represented the per share net asset value of the fund.
"On Jan. 26, the per share net asset value had increased by 8.14 percent to Rp 540. If you had put Rp 500 in a time deposit on Oct. 16 last year, it might grow to only Rp 525 by Jan. 26," said Karmady.
Karmady said that as the first investment fund, the BDNI record of growth, may help improve the public's awareness, particularly retail investors and pension funds, of the benefits in investing in stock markets through mutual funds.
"We have to recognize that the interest rates in the country are high enough to attract investors to put their money in time deposits. But, we at BDNI Reksadana can prove that with professional fund management, we can offer a higher return than that of time deposits," he asserted.
Investment
He explained that BDNI Reksadana allocates 55 percent of its portfolio investment to the equity market and the remaining 35 percent to the money market.
The Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) allows a mutual fund to invest in stock markets up to a maximum of 85 percent of its net asset value and a minimum of 15 percent in the money market.
The new capital market law allows both open-end and closed-end mutual funds. The difference between the two investment funds is that the managers of open-end funds are obliged to buy shares sold by shareholders, thereby allowing easy exit. However, the managers of closed-end funds are not allowed to buy back the shares they have issued.
PT BDNI Securities' fund manager, Harris Thany, said that as of Jan. 29, the company had purchased 40 stocks listed on the JSX.
"We chose only blue chips with an average price earning ratio of 16.07 times last year and 12.86 times this year," said Harris.
Karmady rejected an assumption that his company's funds might have been invested in its group's shares only, such as Gadjah Tunggal, Andayani Megah and Bank BDNI.
"The fund now owns about 7 percent of Astra International's total shares, 4 percent of Gudang Garam and about 3 percent each of Gadjah Tunggal, Indofood, HM Sampoerna, Indocement, Indosat, Telkom and Asahimas," Karmady said. (08)