The Prime Minister has finally launched the much talked about Amanah Saham 1Malaysia (also popularly known as AS 1Malaysia). The sale of the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia units will commence on August 5 and the initial offer period of 30 days will end on September 3.
Unlike other unit trust funds where the minimum initial subscription is 1,000 units, the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia’s initial mininum subscription is 100 units, with subsequent minimum subscription of just 1 unit! Each unit of the Amanah Saham 1Malaysia is priced at RM1.
The fund size totals some 10 billion units, so it seems like there will be quite a lot of units to be going around for sale. However, they are to be sold to the different races according to quotas again. So what’s this about being 1Malaysia? I thought 1Malaysia meant there being no divide amongst races.
Anyway, the quota for allocation of the funds to be sold according to race is as follows:
- 50% to be allocated to Bumiputeras
- 30% to be allocated to Chinese
- 15% to be allocated to Indians
- 5% to be allocated to other minorities
There is no specific mention of the returns of this fund. The only key that hints at a return rate is that it is benchmarked to the 5-year Malaysian government yields, which is currently between 3.7% to 4% per annum.
During the initial offer period, an accountholder is limited to a maximum purchase of 50,000 units if they are aged between 18 to 55 years old. For senior citizens above the age of 55, the maximum purchase is limited to 100,000 units.
Are you interested to buy this? I’m not. For one thing, the benchmarked returns are not satisfactory to me. And I also don’t like the idea of investing into something we are told to be a united trust fund for the country but yet it is still being sold by racial quota!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I like your last paragraph, especially. I feel the exactly the same. Disgusted, with the racial quota implemented on buyers for the first 30 days. And I thought this trust fund supposedly to be ‘united’ and ‘glorious’ from the name of it. What the heck, right? Plus, max investment has been increased, this ain’t gonna help if you get what I mean. Well, I’m not gonna turn down this offer completely, but I’m not putting high hopes either. =/
So did you manage to get any units? If you did, then I hope you make good returns from it