Smart Plans
Jemmy Wawointana, CEO of Sucorinvest Asset Management, talks about different kinds of investments and what to consider when starting out. Edith Emeralda writes
The name jemmy paul Wawointana first appeared on the papers of a prospectus, but it wasn’t Jemmy’s account. Still a high-school kid, he liked to study his brother’s prospecti covering different products in the capital markets and found out that he was part of his older brother’s investing committee in a mutual fund. Feeling extremely elated upon seeing his name in print, Jemmy felt like a dream had come true—or, in this case, the journey to a dream had started.
“With that special feeling, it got me thinking that working doesn’t have to mean manual labour in a factory, but it could also mean working as an analyst in the capital markets as a fund manager,” he told Indonesia Tatler. “Moreover, the mutual funds that were only valued at Rp1,000 back then have since gone up to around Rp65,000.”
With this mindset of helping clients achieve decent profits, Jemmy, in his capacity as the CEO of Sucorinvest Asset Management, always looks to minimise risk by studying a company’s books. However, there are always exceptions—especially in the digital age, with start-up companies sprouting left and right as the technologies that enable them zip forward.
“Speculations do exist when we’re talking about buying investments from companies who are still, so to say, in the negative and are based on expectations of the great things that they might be in the future,” he said, citing Amazon as an example of a company existing for around a decade before growing exponentially and eventually turning huge profits.
Regarding fledgling Indonesian investors, Jemmy further explained that they need to understand better about the nature of start-up companies when considering an investment. “They tend to be conventional when appraising a company’s future by only looking through financial statements rather than what the future holds,” he said. “If you want to minimise risk, check that the company’s results were not in the negative a year before it went to the initial public offering stage—an exception could come, however, if it’s a big player with almost no rival in its market, such as GO-JEK or Traveloka.”
Investing is also influenced by external factors locally and globally, such as political or economic changes, with often-unexpected results, as Jemmy revealed: “I’ve seen that during the election years of 2004, 2009, and 2014, the price of stocks went up despite worries that those years could be shaky,” he said. “In fact, I’m seeing a trend that next year’s world commodities prices are going up, and Indonesia boasts a lot of those materials.” Another investment he suggested in is the banking sector, because this is one of the industries that will come to profit when the economy goes up and down in terms of nonperforming loans.
While planting investments in many companies through Sucorinvest’s services is wise, for those who’d like to share profits with the less-fortunate, the company has Sucorinvest Anak Pintar. In partnership with Pansophia Nusantara, this product will give a percentage of its profits to schoolchildren of elementary-school age at Pansophia’s schools.
“This mutual fund is open to the public, which means corporations, institutions, or even an individual could buy it with as little as Rp100,000 per investment,” Jemmy said. With such a wide range of products guided by his years of experience, and together with the whole team’s efforts, it comes as no surprise that Sucorinvest has garnered many awards over the years, including the Rising Star Asset Management Company of The Year in Indonesia from The Asset Triple A Awards 2018, and the Favourite Investment Manager in 2018 from Investor Magazine & Infovesta Best Mutual Fund Awards. For more information, call +62 21 29960800 or email info@sucorinvestam.com.
“In partnership with Pansophia Nusantara, this product will give half of the revenue from managing the fund to schoolchildren of elementaryschool age at Pansophia’s schools.”