Public Bank Launches Its First Real Estate Fund (18 December 2007)

Public Bank will launch its first Asia real estate fund, PB Asia Real Estate Income Fund (PBAREIF) on 18 December 2007. PBAREIF offers investors the opportunity to participate in the growth prospects of Asia’s property sector and real estate investment trusts (REITs).

PBAREIF which is managed by Public Mutual, comes with free insurance coverage of up to RM100,000 per qualified unitholder. Terms and conditions apply.

Public Mutual’s Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow said PBAREIF is designed to capture the investment opportunities in Asia’s robust property, hotel & resorts and REITs markets. “PBAREIF is ideal for medium- to long-term investors as it enables them to invest in a dynamic and diversified manner across the different types of properties and across multiple markets and economies in the Asia region,” he added.

He also said that property markets in Asia are supported by sustained economic growth, higher disposable incomes, stable interest rates and increasing liberalisation of foreign ownership regulations. Urbanisation and the inflow of expatriates in Asia have also helped fuel demand for property investments. To illustrate the growth of Asia’s property market, Tan Sri Teh noted that the Asia Pacific Real Estate Sector Index achieved a total return of 31.94% in 2006 compared to 4.68% in 2005. The Asia Pacific Real Estate Sector Index is an index of more than 285 property stocks and REITs listed in regional markets. “For year-to-date until 31 October 2007, the Asia Pacific Real Estate Sector Index registered a total return of 27.89%,” he said.

According to Tan Sri Teh, PBAREIF is an actively managed balanced fund which seeks to meet its objective of achieving capital growth and income in the medium- to long-term period by adhering to a balanced asset allocation with 40% to 60% of its net asset value (NAV) in equities and REITs. The fund focuses on investing in companies that are principally engaged in property, hotel and resorts investment and development and REITs in domestic and regional markets to provide capital growth for the fund. “Up to 60% of the fund’s NAV can be invested in selected regional markets which include Japan, Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and other approved markets. The equity exposure of PBAREIF will generally range from 40% to 60% of its NAV. To help generate interest income, the balance of the fund’s NAV will be invested in domestic fixed income securities such as sovereign bonds, corporate debt and money market instruments,” he explained.

PBAREIF is suitable for conservative to moderate investors with a preference for regular income and a respectable level of capital growth. During the 21-day initial offer period of 18 December 2007 to 7 January 2008, the issue price / NAV of PBAREIF is at RM0.2500 per unit with a promotional service charge of 5.45% of NAV per unit. Investors who opt for Direct Debit Instruction with PBAREIF during the offer period will also enjoy the special promotional service charge of 5.45% of NAV per unit for as long as the Direct Debit is active. Terms and conditions apply. The minimum initial investment for the fund is RM1,000 and the minimum additional investment is RM100.

Interested investors can visit any Public Bank branch nationwide or call free-phone at 1-800-88-3323 during normal working hours to find out more about PBAREIF.

The manager of the fund, Public Mutual is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Public Bank. Public Mutual, which is the largest private unit trust company in Malaysia, manages 54 funds for more than 1,350,000 accountholders. As at 30 November 2007, the total net asset value of the funds managed by the company was RM27.4 billion.