KWAP director of equity appointed CEO of VCAP Asset Managers

PETALING JAYA: Taufiq Iskandar Jaminagan, the director of equity in Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP), is said to have been appointed as chief executive officer of VCAP Asset Managers Sdn Bhd (VCAM).

VCAM is one of ValueCap Sdn Bhd’s licensed asset-management companies. ValueCap’s other licensed asset company is i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd.

A check on VCAM’s website showed that it did not have a CEO. Its acting chief investment officer is Anouk Hanafiah.

VCAM is equally-owned by Khazanah Nasional Bhd, KWAP and Permodalan Nasional Bhd.

ValueCap was set up in 2002 to go to market and buy undervalued stocks. The capital came from its three shareholders. ValueCap was a success, of which it had generated returns of 15% per annum within 10 years since its inception, creating about RM8bil in profits. The money was then distributed back to its shareholders.

To reactivate the firm, recall that in September 2015, the Government announced that ValueCap would be allocated RM20bil specifically for the domestic capital market.

This was one of the plans to bring up ValueCAP’s role as an institutional investor in the market.

However, there have been arguments in the market on the real purpose of ValueCap, especially during a period when the local market is already trading above 1,800 points.

It is learnt that Taufiq’s role in VCAM is not only to invest a big chunk of that RM20bil in undervalued stocks or bonds in Bursa Malaysia, but also to finetune ValueCap’s position in the investment scene.

Sources said that there is some RM5bil to RM10bil waiting to be deployed into the market under VCAM’s coffers.

VCAM was formed in December 2013, when ValueCap set out to establish an asset-management subsidiary to meet client-specific investment objectives with a focus on investing in Asean-listed stocks and bonds under a sustainability theme.