Amanah Saham Didik (ASD) is another product available from Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB).
Around mid last year (2006), I invested some of my money in Amanah Saham Didik (ASD). Around mid this year (2007), when I went back to Malaysia for my Winter Hols (Yup, we have winter in the middle of the year here in Australia), I took all my money out and invested in Public Mutual instead. Well, I did left a small sum in my ASD account. Anyway, I’ll talk about Public Mutual another time. This post is about ASD.
So, why did I get my money out from ASD? One simple reason really. The returns that I received did not fit my risk profile. I regard myself as a high-risk investor, so, a return of 6.5% (If I’m not mistaken, this was ASD’s rate of return for 2007), really frustrates me. However, since I did in fact invested in ASD, I’m going to share with you the features of ASD.
While being briefed by PNB’s unit trust consultant, she told me that if a person’s Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) account is full, then your next best option would be to invest in ASD. So, I’m assuming, this is the second best after ASB.
ASD is regarded as a growth fund which invests in a diversified portfolio of equities, fixed income, money market and some other securities (though their main focus is equities).
In my opinion, this is a low-risk investment vehicle due to the fact that the unit trust price is fixed at RM1.00. So, your capital amount is protected.
Here are some of the features of ASD:
1. Only bumiputeras can get on board.
2. Price of units are fixed at RM1.00 per unit.
3. No entry of exit fees.
4. Management fees of 1.5% p.a. (calculated against your account balance on a monthly basis).
5. Their method of return is through distribution of income, similar to ASB. Income distributed will be translated into additional units in your account.
6. Minimum investment is RM100/100 units. Any additional investment is RM1/1 unit.
7. Minimum account balance is RM100.00.
8. Unlike ASB, ASD does not have maximum amount of money you can invest.
9. If you decide to get your money back at any given time, you can sell your unit trusts and get your money on the spot.
All in all, ASD is reasonable investment vehicle if you have a really long investment time frame with a low-risk profile.
Also see Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) post.
