BEA Union Investment launches products to help fund investors combat inflation

The company ensures it invests in instruments that are likely to benefit from Asia’s solid fundamentals and Asian currency appreciation making it achieve consistently strong performance.

BEA Union Investment Management Limited (“BEA Union Investment”) has on Tuesday announced that it will add new features to the BEA Union Investment Asian Bond and Currency Fund (the “Fund”) to help investors capture more frequent and regular interest income either in US or Hong Kong dollars. A new Hong Kong Dollar Share Class will be introduced on 1st June, 2011 and the dividend payout frequency for distribution classes of the Fund has been increased from a quarterly to a monthly basis. The new features added are driven by strong client demand for consistent and attractive dividend payouts and capital growth potential in what may be a prolonged inflationary environment.

Mr Ray Chan, Head of Retail Business (Greater China), says, “Economic fundamentals for Asia excluding Japan have been on an upward trend since late 2009 on account of strong economic growth levels, lower gross government debt, and well funded banking systems. GDP growth rates in Asia are expected to remain among the world’s strongest in 2011 and onwards. The Renminbi and other Asian currencies have also gained strong appreciation against the US dollar”.

Since its launch in August 2008, the Fund has outperformed its benchmark3 by more than 10%, and it was ranked No. 1 among its peers4 in Hong Kong for its one-year performance. The Fund aims to help investors enjoy regular interest income by leveraging capital gains and currency appreciation, primarily through an actively managed diversified portfolio of debt securities denominated in Asian or other currencies and principally issued by Asian governments and corporate entities. Since its launch, the Fund has also provided attractive income. The Fund earned an average annualised yield of 4.54% for the period from 1st January, 2009 to 13th May, 2011, according to a BEA Union Investment report.

Mr Chan continues, “The fund invests in instruments that are likely to benefit from Asia’s solid fundamentals and Asian currency appreciation. We are proud that the Fund has achieved a consistently strong performance even in the most challenging economic times, and we believe Asian fixed income and currency investments will play an important role in almost any client portfolio by providing steady income and adding asset class diversification”.

“Our professional team continuously strives to enhance the scope and quality of our services for investors. The new HKD Share Class and a more frequent dividend distribution are clear commitments to the long-term interests of our investors”.

The minimum investment amount of the new HKD Share Class is HK$10,000. The Fund charges a management fee of 0.75% p.a. and up to 5% as a preliminary charge.