New fund manager PT Aberdeen Asset Management is preparing to start its business in Indonesia soon as it aims to be one of the country'€™s top 10 fund managers by assets under management in the next five years.

The company, part of Scotland-based Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, was launched in December last year after its overseas headquarters completed the acquisition of 80 percent of the shares of PT NISP Asset Management in September 2014.

The conditional sale and purchase agreement (CSPA) on the acquisition was signed in February last year by Aberdeen through its Singapore-based unit Aberdeen Asset Management Asia and NISP Sekuritas, the parent company of NISP Asset Management.

NISP Sekuritas is affiliated with Bank OCBC NISP, a mid-sized lender in Indonesia.

Bharat Joshi, head of investment at Indonesia'€™s Aberdeen Asset Management, said the company has set the high goal amid competition with dozens of other fund managers because of the huge potential of Indonesia'€™s stock market, especially in mutual funds.

'€œWe will launch our first brand campaign in the second quarter this year, including our products of various mutual funds, which are currently under review by the Financial Services Authority [OJK],'€ Joshi said during the company'€™s visit to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Indonesia'€™s Aberdeen Asset Management president director and CEO Sigit Pratama Wiryadi added that the products were actually restructured and rebranding ones from the previous NISP Asset Management, which managed assets worth around Rp 2.2 trillion (US$ 173.8 million) to Rp 2.3 trillion as of November last year.

To support its sales, Sigit said the company already had partnerships with PermataBank and OCBC NISP, while also planning to start cooperating with insurance firms and pension funds as the two latter sectors constituted 60 percent of the group'€™s partnership in Europe and Asia.

In terms of strategy, Joshi said the company has the distinctive features of being committed to long-term investment and avoiding speculative modes of business, saying that '€œWe tend to select around best 50 to 60 companies a year and we are not concerned with short-term volatility.'€

Joshi said the company has considered that the consumer and retail, banking and telecommunications sectors would remain as its long-term investment focus because of their consistent growth in terms of stock prices and businesses.

In the last 10 years, Joshi said the company posted at least 10 percent annual growth of return, stating that, '€œWe are still optimistic with Indonesia'€™s stock markets because there will be more activities on the ground after the revised state budget was approved by the House of Representatives.'€

'€œHowever, execution of the government'€™s plan, especially in infrastructure, will be the biggest question mark. Consumption and spending will be triggered if the infrastructure projects are going well,'€ he said.

Aberdeen had a total US$504.12 billion in assets under management globally as of December last year, according to the company'€™s published statement. As much as $119.4 billion of that value came from the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan.

The Aberdeen Group has invested a total $4.2 billion in Indonesia, which consists of $2.5 billion in equities and $1.7 billion in bonds, including government ones.

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