Thaindian News

SET President Patareeya Benjapolchai said matching funds are being formed by the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and five fund management companies to invest in listed stocks.

The firms involved, which signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the SET on September 26th, are Thanachart Fund Management Co., Ltd., Krung Thai Asset Management PCL, ING Funds (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Kasikorn Asset Management Co., Ltd. and Ayudhya Fund Management Co., Ltd.

Ms. Patareeya said this collaboration will increase the proportion of local and foreign institutional investors, promote investment by listed firms, increase investor confidence and stabilize and develop the Thai capital market over the long term.

The funds to be established will be the Retail Fund, focusing on listed stocks and targeting retail investors. For every 100 million baht put up by SET, a given asset management firm will invest 300 million baht, for a total initial capital of 400 million baht per fund, or two billion baht for all five asset management companies.

Investment will commence this month, which is an opportune time as many stocks with good fundamentals are currently undervalued and most listed companies have already shown strong earnings growth.

At a later date, SET will establish a second fund for individual investors, this time focusing on shares of small listed firms in the FTSE SET Small Cap and Fledgling indices, plus a fund for institutional investors. The combined value of all funds, including the Retail Fund, would be 8.25 billion baht.

Source : National News Bureau, Public Relations Department of Thailand