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Pacific Mutual rolls out Islamic dividend fund

Malaysian fund manager launches aggressive sharia compliant fund.
Pacific Mutual Fund has continued the trend of Malaysian asset managers to invest offshore, launching its Pacific Dana Dividen Fund in Kuala Lumpur. The new "aggressive" Islamic fund can invest up to 50% of its net asset value in foreign investment markets, which will be invested into sharia compliant equities.

Amongst the sharia-compliant equities invested by the fund will be those with high and sustainable dividend yields and above-average income and capital gains. Additionally, the fund will also look at firms, both Malaysian and international, which have both healthy cash balances and decent growth prospects.

According to Pacific Mutual, the decision to roll out a new dividend based fund to Malaysian investors follows previous experience in similar funds, which have outperformed outperformed more traditional equity funds. The asset managerÆs Pacific Dividend Fund, which was launched in 2003, has consistently outperformed the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index and has returned 89% since inception.

The Pacific Dana Divden Fund will be marketed to investors with a medium to long term outlook and as well of those looking to diversify into more sharia-compliant investments. Its launch also comes at time when asset managers and investors alike in Malaysia have been aggressively pursing more offshore and Islamic products, which have both seen growth dramatically outpacing traditional unit trusts in the country.

Pacific MutualÆs latest fund joins its existing range of 15 funds which include various equity and Islamic products. Additionally, the firm also has small cap, fixed income and several funds with a sizable offshore component. Most recently, it rolled out its Pacific Asia Income Fund, which invests in domestic and regional corporations like Samsung Electronics, National Bank of Australia (NAB) and China Mobile.
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