This article first appeared in Wealth, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 25, 2024 - March 31, 2024

PMB Investment Bhd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pelaburan Mara Bhd, clinched four fund awards at the LSEG Lipper Fund Awards 2024 and maintained its winning streak with the PMB Shariah Equity Fund and PMB Shariah Tactical Fund.

The PMB Shariah Equity Fund won the Best Equity Malaysia Diversified awards in the three- and five-year categories in both the Malaysia Islamic and Provident universes. It has experienced strong growth, with its unit circulation doubling to 184.48 million units last year from 92.15 million a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the PMB Shariah Tactical Fund won the Best Mixed Asset MYR Flexible Fund in Malaysia (Islamic) award in the three- and five-year categories. Additionally, the firm’s Dana Bestari fund won the Best Equity Malaysia Income fund in the three- and five-year categories in the Malaysia (Islamic) universe.

PMB CEO Mahani Ibrahim attributes the win to the firm’s flexible investment philosophy implemented across its stock selection, active portfolio management and ensuring efficient diversification through proper asset allocation. The fund managers also focused on laggards and small-cap stocks.

“We analysed the news (global, local and corporate) and government policies and made predictions about sectors that were likely to benefit from them.

“For instance, we anticipated that the National Energy Transition Roadmap would provide a boost to the energy and power sectors. The government aimed to increase the country’s installed renewable energy capacity from 40% in 2035 to 70% by 2050,” she says.

One of the firm’s best calls was investing in under-the-radar small-cap names that have strong potential for growth. “As a result, we increased our exposure or overweighted our investment in these companies,” Mahani adds.

The firm was also more defensive last year and did not do any significant rebalancing exercises. Despite adopting a defensive strategy and asset allocation due to a negative market outlook, the firm has been actively trading the market, which was evident in its portfolio turnover ratio of 1.5 times.

Part of what the team also did was hold cash at around 25% to 30%. The fund manager in charge of the firm’s award-winning portfolio maintained the same flexible investment philosophy while making adjustments to the strategy whenever necessary.

Commenting on 2024, Mahani says downside risks may arise from geopolitical tensions, especially if the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict spreads to the Middle East, as it will cause a hike in oil prices that will increase inflation and affect monetary easing decisions. Others include a US economic recession and a slower pickup in China’s economy.

However, PMB believes that their fund managers are committed to actively managing and mitigating risks to ensure the success of the investment.

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