Manulife launches growth fund

MANULIFE Philippines has launched a new variable life insurance investment-linked fund, the Asean Growth Fund (AGF). Asean is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Indren Naidoo, president and chief executive officer of Manulife Philippines, said that “The Asean Growth Fund enables our clients to invest directly in the strengthening economies of Southeast Asian countries without the need to maintain offshore investment accounts.”

Naidoo added that the AGF aims to maximize returns by investing in companies with the potential to deliver superior earnings growth and investment returns, with the firms selected from a diverse universe and each having $100 million to $3 billion in market capitalization.

The AGF offers exposure to fast-growing Asean economies, which have roughly doubled their aggregate gross domestic products (GDP) over the past five years to reach about $2 trillion for 2012.

While the International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to post GDP growth of 3.6 percent in 2013, it sees the Asean 5 economies delivering 5.8-percent growth in the same period on the back of structural changes, favorable demographics and resilient domestic demand, Naidoo said.

For his part, Kenglin Tan, senior portfolio manager of Manulife Asset Management said that, “The Southeast Asia Small Cap strategy focuses on fundamental, bottom-up analysis. In particular, we look to invest in companies that can achieve rerating and increase their market capitalizations base on a combination of factors such as market leadership, superior growth profile and low valuation.” RAADEE S. SAUSA