I saw an ad in today’s paper about the newest fund in the market by Public Bank – the PB USA Recovery Fund. From what I understand reading the brochure, this is a structured fund and it’s 100% capital protected in Ringgit. This fund aims to capture the economic recovery of the US equity market in the next 5 years.

I downloaded a copy of the brochure but the more I read, the more confused I got. So I decided to call and speak to a warm body. Here’s what I found out about the PB USA Recovery Fund and how it works.

• 100% capital protected in Ringgit Malaysia at maturity
• A closed end fund with an investment tenure of 5 years
• It’s a structured product that invests:
  • 90% of the NAV of the fund into domestic bonds and money market instruments
  • 10% of the NAV of the fund into S&P 500 options
• It has a callable feature, which means that some targeted returns are set and once these targets are being met, the investment will be called and returns will be paid out to unit holders
• No annual management fees and no service charges
• Minimum investment to start with is RM100,000

I do believe that the US equity market has a great potential upside come 5 years from today when the economy takes a turn for the better. Everything about the fund, especially the promise of zero management fees and no service charges, seem to be attractive. But I’m quite appalled by the minimum investment amount of RM100,000.

But if you have that kind of money, would you go for this fund? If I had all that extra money sitting in a bank in some FDs, I will really consider this fund.

To find out more, you can read the brochure (download it from Public Bank’s fund info page) for detailed technical explanations of how this fund works.

To read more personal finance and money related articles, visit Penny Sense.

How does the new Public Bank’s PB USA Recovery Fund work?

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I know we get quite a lot of tourism business out of the Arabs every year. But I didn’t know that they were bringing in so much of money that even Arab investors are now interested to build a mini Arab in Malacca to attract even more Middle Eastern visitors!

And to spend something to the tune of US$300 million just to build something that emulates the Arab’s hometown, that’s a lot of money. I do wonder though whether the mini Arab town is going to attract more Arabs or Malaysians.

If I’m an Arabian on holiday in a foreign land, I would want to soak in the culture and experience of the country and not be in a place just like home.

On the contrary, I would imagine that it would be nice for the Malaysian folks to get to feel and experience an Arabian city without having to go all that far. So is this foreign investment to build an Arab city in Malacca meant to attract the Arabians or the local Malaysians?

Whoever the intended visitors, I think it’s a good first step to getting some foreign funds into the local economy and building something that could be of value and interest to the community in Malacca.

In the next few years when this piece of development in under way, hopefully we will see some benefits of job creation as well as consumer spending over the long term. If well managed, this is really good news for us as one way to help revive the poor market.

You can read this piece of interesting news here on Channel News Asia and The Star.

To read more personal finance and money related articles, visit Penny Sense.

Arab investors to spend US$300 million to build Mini Arab in Malacca

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With the recent market nervousness that’s been created by the news of AIG and Citigroup both needing urgent funds with one resorting to disposing valueable assets and the other on the verge of nationalisation, yet another news is cropping up from another financial institution.

This time, it is HSBC who needs to raise some $17 billion and cutting down over 6,000 jobs in the US. Coupled with that, some units of HSBC are also closing down in the US. You can read the article for more information on Bloomberg.

It looks like we are really far from seeing the worst that has yet to come. Day by day, more and more companies are making headlines with their troubled financial positions. We don’t even know what’s going to come tomorrow!

To read more personal finance and money related articles, visit Penny Sense.

More gloom ahead for financial institutions – HSBC cuts jobs

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Well this isn’t my theory, of course. Legendary investor Jim Rogers thinks that the US dollar is heading towards doomsday. And so is the British pound. In fact, he thinks the pound is headed towards more doom than the US dollar. On the contrary, I’ve read recently that since the pounds has come down in its rates domestically, many people are buying into them.

If you want to look long term and get a little clue as to how to go about your investments, read between the lines in the exclusive interview with Jim Rogers by DailyMarkets.com.

Exclusive Interview: Jim Rogers Says If He Were China, He Would Scale Back On Buying US Bonds

By Grace Cheng on January 15, 2009 | More Posts By Grace Cheng | Author’s Website

In this DailyMarkets.com exclusive, I spoke by phone with legendary investor Jim Rogers who made his fortune with the Quantum Fund, a hedge fund he co-founded with George Soros in 1970. Over the next 10 years, Quantum gained 4200% while the S&P 500 index rose about 47%.

He is also author of the best-selling books “Hot Commodities”, “Investment Biker” and “Adventure Capitalist”. Rogers, who created the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI) in 1998, is one of the most closely watched investors. If you are fed up with the Fed, you are not alone. Recently, Rogers said that Paulson and Bernanke should resign for keeping “zombie banks” alive as they should be allowed to fail.

His uncanny accuracy in predicting the recent commodity bull run as well as the financial crisis has made the media, as well as private and institutional investors, sit up and listen to what he has to say about the markets.

Grace Cheng: Do you think the period of forced liquidation has ended or does it still have a ways to go?

Rogers: I’m sure it has not ended. It certainly has not ended for many asset classes and it probably has not ended for most. It may be over for a few things but it still has a long way to go.

As you’ve said many times, the US government is printing a lot of money right now, when do you think inflation will come around and bite us?

Rogers: Well there is inflation now in many things. There’s temporary deflation in raw material prices and in some property. But throughout history, whenever you’ve had gigantic printing of money and spending of borrowed money, it has always led to higher prices. Unless something is dramatic, it’s going to happen again. When I don’t know. It’s already happening in some things. I don’t know if you’ve bought any sugar recently or some other things, prices are up and that will continue and it will get worse.

You’ve been bullish on commodities for a long time, recently you said you’re buying the Rogers Metal Index. Do you think that the Obama stimulus plan will create more demand for commodities?

Rogers: Well of course, anything that causes a revival of economic activity causes a revival of demand for everything including commodities. I mean if you’re gonna build bridges you’ve got to build them out of something you cannot build virtual bridges you have to build real bridges, etc.

You’ve said that over the long term, the US dollar is doomed. What are your thoughts on the British Pound?

Rogers: More doomed. It will disappear sooner. If it weren’t for the North Sea, the British Pound would have already disappeared. It’s more doomed. The UK has been exporting oil for 26 years; within the decade, the UK will be a net importer of oil again, and they have nothing else to sell to the world once the oil dries up.

Do you think China will scale back on buying US bonds? And if that happens, how will it affect the US economy and the US dollar?

Rogers: Well if I were China, I would scale back. If I were everybody, I would scale back. The US bonds yield virtually nothing, the dollar is a flawed currency, inflation is coming, higher interest rates are coming. I would think everybody would be scaling back including China. We’re going to have higher interest rates down the road because somebody’s gonna scale back. If not China, Japan or Korea, or who knows, somebody.

You’ve been buying Chinese stocks for many years already, now that China’s economy is doing badly and exports are decreasing significantly, what sectors are you looking at in China?

Rogers: Agriculture, water treatment, people who build power generation, people who build infrastructure, tourism. Many areas of the Chinese economy will continue to do well no matter what happens to the world economy. Many will suffer; anybody who sells to Wal-mart (WMT: 51.56 +0.21 +0.41%) or retailers in America is going to suffer, others will do extremely well no matter what.

My last question, on a personal note, do you miss traveling around the world for fun like you’ve done several times before?

Rogers: No, because now I have two little girls and they’re more fun than anything. I hope someday that I will travel around the world with them for fun. But at the moment, watching them grow up and helping them grow up is more fun than anything I can imagine.

Source: DailyMarkets.com

To read more personal finance and money related articles, visit Penny Sense.

US dollar and British pounds are doomed

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It’s not possible for just about anyone, that’s for sure. But it is highly possible for someone named Natalie Dylan. This 22 year old is auctioning her virginity at 2.5 million pounds and she is still not accepting that amount as she’s waiting for a better offer! Now who says you can’t be an overnight millionaire if you have your virginity to sell? This must be one of the best ploy on how to get rich instantly!

Read about Natalie Dylan’s virginity auction story here.

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Who says you can’t be an overnight millionaire?

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