First Metro, Grepalife and Prudentialife expand presence in mutual fund industry

Despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, the new players in the country’s fledgling mutual fund industry continue to move forward.

The Prudential Group, Grepalife Asset Management Corp. (GAMC), and First Metropolitan Asset Management Inc. (FMAM) have a combined assets of nearly a billion pesos after over a year in operation.

At the end of October this year, the net asset value (incomplete) of the mutual fund industry stood at nearly P76 billion.

"We are looking at a return on investment of 15 to 16 percent at yearend," Jose Albert T. Alba, Prudentialife president said.

Alba claims to have funds of between P200-500 million, and he was looking at assets under management (AUM) to reach P1 billion within the next two years.

Deutsche Bank is the asset manager of the Prudentialife Fixed Income Fund. Incidentally, the foreign investment bank is also the trustee bank for its pre-need company, Prudential Plans Inc.

It also operates a fixed income dollar fund and a peso equity fund, both managed by ING Bank.

"Our fixed income fund recorded a 14.69 percent year-to-date return as of Dec. 6 this year, the best performing fund as of record date. The next best performing was recorded at 10.15 percent," Alba claims.

Grepalife Fixed Income Fund reached P334 million as of end October this year, from a mere P50 million exactly a year ago. It is managed by GAMC, a member of the Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC).

The Grepalife Income Fund (GFIF) is the only peso bond mutual fund in the country, which employs a cross-currency investment strategy.

Likewise, the First Metropolitan Asset Management Inc. (FMAM) launched just a few months ago the Save and Learn Fixed Income Fund, and the Save and Learn Equity Fund. Both mutual funds are supported by the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP), the nationwide association of catholic schools and universities.

AUMs as of end October reportedly reached P80 million, and it is targetted to reach P300 million by next year. –Ted Torres