1Malaysia unit trust fund set for August launch

The much-anticipated 1Malaysia unit trust fund is set to be launched by the end of next month with a size of 10 billion units, executives of the country's largest fund manager Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) said.
They said the launch is dependent on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's itinerary, but is now tentatively scheduled for August.PNB president and chief executive officer Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah Che Othman declined to disclose the date nor other details, but said that the launch will be held "very soon"."Let the Prime Minister announce the details," he told a media briefing on the sale of additional units of Amanah Saham Malaysia (ASM) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.Until the 1Malaysia fund is unveiled, all Malaysians are able to make new purchases or increase their existing unit trusts offered by PNB via ASM.
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PNB is offering an extra 1.6 billion units of the ASM, an equity-income fund, from July 21.The 1.6 billion units are actually the unsold Bumiputera portion of the 3.3 billion new ASM units launched by Najib on April 21 this year.Bumiputeras got half of the 3.3 billion units, the sixth additional launches to the ASM.

The ASM itself was first introduced in 2000 with an initial two billion units, which were fully sold out in 21 days.The fund is open to all Malaysians aged six months and above. To date, it boasts a total fund size of 7.63 billion units.

"Of the 3.3 billion units, 990 million units and 499.5 million units set aside for the Chinese and Indians have been fully subscribed," Hamad Kama Piah said.To ensure a fair distribution of the remaining ASM units to the investing public, he said a maximum 20,000 units per accountholder has been set during the first seven days till July 27.After which, the number of units to be subscribed depends on the availability of the units, he added.