Panin eyes tripling customer numbers

PT Panin Asset Management, a subsidiary of publicly-listed security company PT Panin Sekuritas, says it will launch five mutual funds this year to support a target of tripling its customer numbers.

Panin Asset Management director Ridwan Soetedja said the company expected to have 50,000 customers by year end, over 17,000 at present.

Ridwan said he hoped the expected increase would boost the value of the firm’s assets under management (AUM) to Rp 16 trillion (US$1.78 billion), up from a current Rp 9 trillion.

Three of the mutual funds would be offered to the public in the first semester.

Two of the three new mutual fund products would be sharia funds and the remainder would be money market funds.

“We are targeting that the money market funds will generate Rp 100 billion to Rp 200 billion, while sharia funds will be at about Rp 100 billion,” he said, adding that the company planned to offer two more funds in the second half.

According to Ridwan, Panin Asset Management was targeting Rp 100 billion in net profits for 2012, double that of Rp 50 billion booked last year.

Meanwhile, Panin Sekuritas president director Handrata Sadeli said that the company expected mutual funds would contribute more than 30 percent of the company’s revenue in 2012.

“Last year, mutual funds contributed about 20 percent to 30 percent. This year, we are expecting more.”

Hendrata said that Panin Asset Management would introduce one or two more mutual fund products in the second half.

Ridwan said that Panin Asset Management had not decided what types of mutual funds would be launched in the second half, however, he said that they would not be private equity funds investing in infrastructure projects nor exchange traded funds (ETF).

According to Ridwan, Panin Asset Management currently had 12 active mutual funds this year. Panin Sekuritas and Panin Asset Management have launched 24 mutual funds to date.

Panin Asset Management was established last year to take over the fund manager work of Panin Sekuritas.

According to regulations established by the Financial Institutions & Capital Markets Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK), security companies have to separate the securities functions of brokerages and underwriters from fund managers.