Kuala Lumpur, 30 April 2021: Kenanga Investors Berhad (“Kenanga Investors”) has declared a final income distribution of RM161.5 million for 18 retail funds until March 2022 adding to an earlier distribution and repatriation of RM298.3 million during the course of 2021, making it a total distribution amount of RM459.8 million for its clients for the financial year of 2021.
The income distribution was derived from the funds' realised gains, dividends and other income across equity, fixed income and mixed asset classes, driven by outperformance despite prolonged market turbulence caused by the re-imposition of stricter nationwide containment measures towards the end of the second quarter.
Ismitz Matthew De Alwis, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Kenanga Investors said, “We are proud to declare an income distribution yields ranging from 6% to 10% for equity and balanced funds while fixed income funds generated average yields of 6%. Throughout 2021, our investments in technology & manufacturing companies locally generated good results. These companies, which are mostly involved in the global semi-conductor supply chain, benefited from rising global demand for electronics as more people worked from home in addition to the long-term structural drivers for this industry. We employed a barbell strategy focused on structural themes and cyclicals which gave us a competitive edge since it allows us to focus on long-term performance, especially over three, five, and ten-year periods”.
Going forward, the fund house will continue to favour sectors with more resilient earnings by remaining positive on both secular growth tech companies and certain value/cyclical sectors such as tourism, travel, consumer, property and financials. “We are of the opinion that the tech development theme has room to run, with many structural growth areas such as virtual reality, electric vehicles, AI/machine learning, 5G and IoT,” he says.
Kenanga Investors enters the second quarter of 2022 with accolades from major industry awards such as Asia Asset Management’s 2022 Best of the Best Awards, Refinitiv Lipper Fund Awards Malaysia 2022. Most recently, the Morningstar Malaysia Fund Awards 2022 awarded Kenanga Growth Fund Series 2 (USD) the Best Malaysia Large-Cap Equity Fund title, one of only five awards given to financial institutions for the year. It has also expanded upon its Kenanga Sustainability Series with the launch of the Kenanga Sustainability Series: High Yield Bond Fund at end March. The Fund is the first Sustainable and Responsible Investment (“SRI”) qualified High Yield Bond fund in the local market. It aims to provide investors a more robust portfolio stemming from ESG analytics aside from standard quantitative and qualitative metrics during evaluation. This is the second fund in the series following the introduction of the Kenanga Sustainability Series: Frontier Fund in October 2021.
As at 31 March 2022, the firm manages 39 unit trust funds, 2 private retirement schemes (consisting of 6 core funds and 1 non-core fund), 6 exchange-traded funds (ETFs), 30 wholesale funds and other funds from government agencies, pension funds, insurance, corporate and individual clients with total assets under administration amounting to RM 19.5 billion.
For more information about Kenanga Investors Berhad, please visit www.kenangainvestors.com.my.
