PhilEquity eyes balanced fund in 2007, new equity funds in 2008

After outperforming the equity mutual funds sector in the past years, PhilEquity Management Inc. will be launching its first balanced fund within the year.

“We are also looking at launching another equity fund which will be invested in small but stable capital funds, and still another equity fund focused on the high earnings, high growth issues,” Edmund P. Bunyi Jr., president of PhilEquity Management Inc., which is the fund manager of the Philequity Fund, the best performing equity mutual fund in the industry.

It is also the fund manager of Philequity Dollar Income Fund (a US dollar bond fund) and Philequity Money Market Fund (a peso bond fund).

Bunyi said that introducing new mutual funds will give investors more options and the fund manager more flexibility.

“We are also strengthening and expanding customer service, investment strategy, sales and marketing, including our Internet strategy,” he added.

The PhilEquity Fund Inc. reported assets worth P2.3 billion, as of end May 2007.

The fund has investments in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Ayala Land, the Bank of the Philippine Islands, Ayala Corp., the Manila Electric Corp., Megaworld Properties, the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., SM Prime, SM Investments, and the Banco de Oro Unibank.

The key sectors where the fund is focused principally in real estate, banks, telecommunications, electricity/utilities, holding comapnies, food, diversified financial services, and investment companies. To a lesser degree, the fund diversifies into mining, building materials, beverages, commercial services, water, insurance, media, retail, engineering, and oil and gas.

Net assets managed by PhilEquity reached P1.84 billion at the end of 2006, or a 64-percent growth from the assets under management (AUMs) of P1.12 billion in 2005.

Comparing its performance vis-a-vis the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi), the Philequity Fund consistently outperformed the key benchmark of the equities market in both returns and volatility.

Last year, the fund reported returns of 52.3 percent versus the 42.3 percent of the PSEi, and it reported a lower volatility level of 15.7 percent versus 20.3 percent of the PSEi.

Since 1995, the Philequity Fund outperformed 11 times in terms of returns over the PSEi in the 12-year span. And 12 consecutive years since 1995 in terms of volatility.

Based on data accumulated from the Investment Companies Association of the Philippines (ICAP), the Philequity Fund has the highest returns in the three-year and five-year span.

In a one-year span, the fund recorded a 61.96-percent return; in the three-year returns, it was 38.5 percent; and 30.93 percent in returns in the five-year span.

The peso and dollar bond funds managed by Philequity Management were also ranked among the leaders.

By introducing new mutual funds, Philequity Management will compete with the Philam Asset Management Inc. (PAMI) and the Sun Life Asset Management Co. (SLAMC). The two fund managers manage five or more funds with returns also ranked among the leaders.— TPT