KAsset banks on digital wealth guidance
Kasikorn Asset Management (KAsset) plans to retain its top position in the mutual fund business by adopting digital wealth advisory strategies, aiming to expand digitalbased unitholders to 80% of its total customers by 2023.
Executive chairman Vasin Vanichvoranun said the company will continue focusing on the mutual fund business and wants to be the industry’s first digital wealth adviser.
KAsset will launch additional features for its mutual fund and provident fund applications, which use big data analysis and robotic wealth advisory services to provide personalised investment strategies that generate higher returns, while maintaining investment risks at a similar threshold, said Mr Vasin.
“The industry’s average return for mutual funds over the past 16 months was low at 2.9%. If customers adjust their asset allocation into an asset class suitable for their risk appetite, their investment portfolio might provide a return of 11.4%,” he said.
The industry’s mutual fund unitholders are expected to reach 4 million in 2023, with those in the digital segment expected to reach 1.7 million, said Mr Vasin.
For KAsset, mutual fund digital unitholders are projected to reach 800,000 in 2023, accounting for 80% of its total mutual fund unitholders — projected to grow to 1 million over the next five years.
“Digital is an unavoidable channel. The number of mutual fund digital-based unitholders is growing at a fast pace [annually] — 10% on average,” said Mr Vasin.
The firm forecasts its mutual fund digital unitholders will account for 60% of total mutual fund investment, up from 42% logged at year-end 2017, he said.
At the end of 2017, KAsset had 150,000 mutual fund digital unitholders, growing from 60,000 in 2014.
That growth was driven by the launch of the digital investment applications K-Cyber Invest and My Port Simulation in 2016, followed by a fund navigator application for mutual fund (K-My Funds) and provident fund (K-My PVD) for retail customers in 2017.
This year, KAsset has reported 2.5% growth in total assets under management worth 1.34 trillion baht, positioning the company to remain in the top spot for mutual and private funds.
Of that sum, the company’s mutual fund business was valued at 1.02 trillion (20.3% of the market), while provident and private funds were worth 195 billion and 125 billion, respectively.
Thidasiri Srisamith, KAsset executive vice-president, said the company expects the stock market to experience greater volatility in the second half, driven by the US Federal Reserve’s policy rate decisions, the global trade war and uncertainty over Thailand’s general election, which has been postponed to February 2019.
“We expect the Thai government will rush mega-infrastructure i nvestment projects and the terms of reference in the second half before the election [takes place]. This will help build market confidence and will be a boon for the stock market,” said Ms Thidasiri.
First senior vice-president Chajchai Sarit-apirak said the fixed income market is promising despite rising global interest rates because markets have already priced in the issue.