KUALA LUMPUR: HwangDBS Investment Management Bhd (HwangDBS IM) has launched its latest retail fund, the HwangDBS Tactical Opportunity Capital Protected Fund (TOcP).

It said on Tuesday, Jan 26 the fund offers investors potential capital growth and a proven strategy that has aggressive and defensive options.

"In short, TOCP is structured to leverage on an Over-the-Counter (OTC) option that taps into China's accelerated growth but has the ongoing flexibility of switching to Australian bank bills to preserve the portfolio in unpredictable times," it said.

HwangDBS IM said this is possible via its economy monitoring indicator that analyses market conditions and switches allocation back and forth from active to defensive positions. This feature helps remove timing concern that is customary of traditional funds.

HwangDBS IM chief executive officer and executive director Teng Chee Wai said Asia has protected itself well and its economies have recovered from the global financial crisis faster than the West. He expected Asian economies will be first off the block when a full recovery kicks in.

"As a fund management company, HwangDBS IM is optimistic and is bullish on the emerging market theme, especially Asia economies such as China," he said.

Teng added China is an ever-growing market and will, by the early 2020s, overtake the US in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).

"Research anticipates China will make up the biggest share of the global growth which is more than 25%. To support this, China's announcement of their US$586 billion stimulus plan allocation which is heavily skewed towards infrastructure spending points towards a massive increase in demand for commodities," he added.

Teng said the immediate beneficiary of China's demand, global growth and specific Asia infrastructure spending, will be Australia. Australia supplies both hard and soft commodities and China is one of Australia's major export destinations.

He added that TOcP, with its flexible and defensive nature. Investors will be pleased to note that they may be able to take profit and free their investing capital without having to sit through a long lock-in period as TOcP has the potential to mature as early as 6 months after the commencement date.

The minimum initial investment is RM2,000 and the minimum additional investment is RM1,000. TOcP has an approved fund size of 200 million units retailing at RM1.00 per unit during the offer period.

The fund aims to provide capital protection as well as capital appreciation over a maximum horizon of five years through exposure to a minimum of 85% of the net asset value in zero-coupon negotiable instruments of deposits and a maximum of 10% of the net asset value in an OTC option linked to the performance of a basket of indices and the three-month Australian Bank Bill Short Term Rate.

TOcP will be made available through all HwangDBS IM outlets and three banks nationwide, namely Malayan Banking Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and Affin Bank Bhd.