CIMB-Principal has benefitted from the market rebound, says CEO
CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd (CIMB-Principal) is looking to grow its assets under management (AUM) in Malaysia to RM60 billion by 2020, from the current RM52 billion.
“Currently, our AUM in total across Asean is around RM72 billion, with Malaysia accounting for the majority of that at RM52 billion. In three years, we hope to grow the Malaysian AUM to RM60 billion, which means our total AUM will be much more than that,” CIMB-Principal chief executive officer Munirah Khairuddin said in an interview yesterday.
The asset manager was speaking to Malay Mail on the sidelines of the Invest Malaysia 2017 conference here at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur yesterday, which was co-organised by CIMB Group.
Munirah said CIMB-Principal has benefitted from the market rebound, with consumer and investor sentiment coming back.
“We are seeing especially strong sentiment returning from retail investors, driven by the rise in the middle-income population which gives them the ability to put aside more income for investment. Overall, we are seeing more optimism in some of the projects that have been announced, coupled with our stock plays.
“We are quite happy with how the year has progressed, and are actually seeing more momentum on business in the second quarter. For the second half of the year, and going into next year, we remain optimistic on the Malaysian market as the ringgit has stabilised and we are getting a lot more foreign direct investment inflows.
“On top of the country’s ability to execute some of the big projects efficiently, the GLC (government-linked companies) restructuring is providing an investment story for Malaysia,” she said, alluding to Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s various merger and demerger plans for its stable of companies such as Sime Darby, I&P, and SP Setia.
Munirah added that regional markets have also come up, and structurally, the market is more poised at a better level than in the past three years.
This article first appeared in Malay Mail Money