KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): The total assets under management (AUM) of licensed fund management companies (FMCs) decreased by 4.69% to RM906.46 billion in 2022, from RM951.05 billion in 2021, according to the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC)’s Annual Report 2022 released on Monday (March 27).
In 2022, the top five FMCs contributed 55.42% of total AUM, compared to 54.81% in 2021.
According to the SC, sources of funds under management were largely from unit trust funds, the Employees Provident Fund, corporate bodies, and wholesale funds.
“The funds were allocated in various asset classes and locations, of which, investment inside Malaysia by FMCs amounted to RM624.87 billion, representing 68.94% of the total AUM as at end of 2022.
“The bulk of investment was allocated to equities with 47.59% at end of 2022, as compared to 49.20% in 2021,” said the SC.
Collective investment schemes and private retirement schemes
Unit trust funds — which continued to be the largest component of the Malaysian collective investment schemes industry — recorded a total net asset value of RM487.94 billion as at end 2022, versus RM526.90 billion as at end 2021.
“The percentage of the total NAV of [the] unit trust fund industry against Bursa Malaysia market capitalisation is 28.10% (2021: 29.45%),” said the SC.
In 2022, a total of 39 unit trust funds were launched while 11 funds were terminated and nine funds matured, which brought the total number of unit trust funds offered by 38 locally-incorporated unit trust management companies to 759 funds.
In the wholesale funds, total NAV recorded was RM76.50 billion, down from RM79.45 billion as at end-2021.
There were 46 funds launched under the Lodge and Launch Framework to sophisticated investors while 15 funds were terminated and eight funds matured in 2022, which brought the total number of wholesale funds offered by 44 FMCs to 437 funds.
Meanwhile, there were 58 funds offered to investors which have been qualified as Sustainable and Responsible Investment (SRI) funds under the guidelines on sustainable and responsible investment funds, comprising 31 unit trust funds and 27 wholesale funds with a total NAV of RM7.05 billion.
In contrast, there were 34 funds in 2021 with a total NAV of RM5.07 billion.
The tally for real estate investment trusts (REITs) at the end-2022 was 19. Their collective market capitalisation was RM39.08 billion from RM38.44 billion, while total asset size grew to RM61.50 billion from RM59.44 billion.
The SC said there were 19 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed on Bursa Malaysia as at Dec 31, 2022, with a total market capitalisation of RM2.1 billion versus RM2.6 billion billion the year before.
Meanwhile, there was only one closed-end fund or CEF listed on the Main Market of Bursa as at end-December 2022, with a market capitalisation of RM280 million compared with RM314 million a year ago, said the SC.
Additionally, there were 13 private retirement schemes (PRS) as at Dec 31, 2022, compared with 12 PRS a year earlier.
“A total of 16 new private retirement funds were launched in 2022, which brought the total number of private retirement funds in operation as at Dec 31, 2022 to 75 (2021: 59), with total NAV of RM5.41 billion (2021: RM5.63 billion),” added the SC.