Mutual fund AUMs hit P85B

Net assets managed by the country’s mutual fund industry has reached a record P85.1 billion, servicing a total of 150,049 institutional and individual accounts as of November 2007. In October 2006, assets under management (AUM) reached P58 billion.

A mutual fund is an investment company whose objective is to make money by investing and reinvesting in securities and other instruments in the capital markets. An investor can participate in the investment company or mutual fund by buying the shares of the fund, thus becoming shareholders.

A mutual fund is managed by an asset management company (AMC) run by full-time investment professionals. Investments are as low as P2,000 for some cases, although the standard minimum is more in the range of P5,000 to P10,000. Others go as high as P50,000 minimum initial placement.

Largest fund is the bond fund, both peso-denominated and foreign currency, reaching a whopping P51.968 billion. Second largest fund is the balanced with a total of P18.95 billion and the equity fund with P13.595 billion.

Still struggling to reach the P1-billion mark is the money market fund registering net assets of P593 million.

The Philam Asset Management Inc. (PAMI) has the distinction of having the largest number of accounts reaching 94,223 followed by the BPI Asset Management Group (BPI-AMG) with 23, 246 individual and institutional accounts, and Sun Life Asset Management Co. (SLAMC) with 21,769.

PAMI is an affiliate of the Philamlife group of companies, BPI-AMG with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), and SLAMC is a member of the Sunlife Financial group.

The biggest bond fund is the ALFM Peso Bond Fund with net assets reaching P29.26 billion. BPI-AMG manages 12,894 accounts in that peso-denominated bond fund.

It is followed by the Philam Bond Fund valued at P6.2 billion and 36,904 accounts. It is managed by PAMI.

Following the two is the Sun Life Prosperity (SLP) Bond Fund with P3-billion net assets and Prudentialife Fixed Income Fund with P346 million. The latter is overseen by the Prudential group of companies lead by the Prudentialife Plans, although the fund manager is Deutsche Bank.

The Philam Dollar Bond Fund recorded net assets worth P5.25 billion followed closely by the ALFM Dollar Fund worth P5.24 billion. Grepalife Fixed Income Fund, also US dollar-denominated, reported assets worth P823 million.

Noteworthy is the ALFM Euro Bond Fund with AUMs worth P415 million.

Top balanced fund is the SLP Balanced Fund with net assets worth P9.91 billion followed by GSIS Mutual Fund with P3.9 billion, and Philam Fund Inc. with P2.93 billion.

Reflecting the strong performance of equities market, equity funds are practically even-steven with Philam Strategic Growth Fund worth P3.32 billion, Philippine Stock Exchange Index Fund with P3.15 billion, SLP Equity Fund with P3.12 billion, and PhilEquity Fund with P2.61 billion.

Notable is the First Metro Save and Learn Equity Fund with net assets worth P593 million. These client base are academic and non-academic personnel of mainly Catholic schools.