Six mutual funds ready for operation
JAKARTA (JP): Chairman of the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) I Putu Gede Ary Suta confirmed that at least six mutual funds are now ready to start operations.
"We at the agency are now processing their registration statements," Putu said on Monday.
Putu said that three of the mutual funds will be launched by the state-owned PT Danareksa Fund Management, two by PT Bahana TCW Investment Management and one by Bank BDNI.
"Several banks, including AMRO Bank and Bank Bira, have also disclosed their intention to set up mutual funds," Putu added.
The president of Danareksa Fund Management, Iwan Pontjowinoto, told The Jakarta Post that the three funds to be set up by Danareksa are open-ended mutual funds.
"We prefer open-ended funds in order to take advantage of tax regulations," Iwan said.
The new tax regulations exempt the holders of mutual fund units from income tax.
"The three funds will be named after flowers -- Melati, Anggrek and Mawar -- to remind us of the late first lady, Ibu Tien Soeharto, who was an avid flower lover," Iwan said.
He said that the "Melati fund" will focus its investment in fixed income instruments, while the "Mawar fund" will concentrate on high risk instruments such as equity investment.
"The investment of the "Anggrek fund" will be in both high risk and fixed income instruments.
"Therefore, investors can choose the right fund for their own motives," Iwan said.
Meanwhile, Bahana TWC announced yesterday that it will establish two funds, namely Bahana Dana Abadi (an open end fixed- income fund) and Bahana Dana Prima (an open end equity fund).
Bahana said in a statement that it will issue 300 million fund units for Bahana Dana Abadi and 200 million units for Bahana Dana Prima, to be priced at a nominal value of Rp 1,000 (42 US cents) for each unit.
The statement said that Bahana Dana Prima will pay dividends four times per annum and Bahana Dana Abadi once a year.
"A contract with sponsors will be signed in the first week next month, while the offering period is scheduled for mid August," the statement said.
The statement also said that total funds managed by Bahana TWC, which started its investment management operations in June last year, currently exceed Rp 230 billion. (alo)