Petaling Jaya, 23 February 2010 – Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd, one of Malaysia's leading investment management companies, is being conferred as the BEST EQUITY and BEST MIXED ASSETS fund management house for three years performance respectively at The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2010 today. In addition, Pacific Mutual has also garnered four other awards for individual fund performance, making it one of the biggest winners at these awards. Awards are for fund performance ending 31 December 2009.

The individual fund awards received by Pacific Mutual are as follows:
Pacific S&P Global STARS Fund         – Equity Global; 3 Years
Pacific Income Fund                         – Mixed Asset MYR Conservative; 3 Years
Pacific Income Fund                         – Mixed Asset MYR conservative; 5 Years
Pacific Millennium Fund                     – Equity Malaysia; 10 Years

According to Pacific Mutual’s CEO and CIO, Michael Auyeung, the changes to the investment process adopted since late 2005 have proven their worth. Portfolio risk is reduced via tight selection criteria for core holdings, leading to fewer stocks of higher quality in each fund. From the macro perspective, tactical asset allocation is applied rigorously during times of market volatility, but exposures are held steady in uni-directional markets. The result has been better performance on inherently lower risks, and this has been the case across Pacific Mutual’s entire spectrum of Funds.

Auyeung comments, “The Pacific S&P Global STARS Fund not only emerged as the best global equity fund for three years performance, the first time an award is being given for equity global funds, but the Fund is also ranked a Lipper Leader for both the Consistent Return and Total Return categories (source: Lipper as at 29 December 2009).

When the local unit trust industry was finally allowed to manage offshore funds in a meaningful fashion some four years back, our decision to manage foreign funds in-house looked a real challenge. Initially, it looked like local managers would be shut out of anything outside of Malaysia, as most funds were outsourced. For the few local houses that took up the challenge of trying to establish an offshore track record, it has been a tough struggle. Hopefully this award for global equities helps make a statement.”

“We are also proud that our big-cap local equity fund, the Pacific Millennium Fund, has outperformed its peers to be the best local equity fund for 10-year performance, while our Pacific Income Fund is the best performing fund under the local mixed asset conservative category for both three and five years performance respectively,” adds Auyeung.

“At Pacific Mutual, we believe in consistent outperformance across the board. Rather than just being the best in any one particular category, whether in-house managed local or global equities, mixed asset or money market funds, we ensure our Funds are managed prudently to outperform their sector/peer average considerably and consistently over time. We also take this opportunity to thank our investors for believing in and continuing to stay invested with Pacific Mutual,” says Auyeung, adding that the Company always puts investors’ interests at the heart of all its policies, investments and operational decisions.

Since late 2009, Pacific Mutual has been communicating to the public on the consistent outperformance of their investment products. This win at The Edge-Lipper Malaysia Fund Awards 2010 is proof of the Company being true to its word.

Pacific Mutual, the investment arm of the PacificMas Berhad and a member of OCBC Group, currently manages a total of 25 Funds, which include nine Funds with foreign investment mandates and three wholesale Funds. The Company also manages private mandate funds under its asset management business. As at mid February 2010, Pacific Mutual manages RM1.8 billion on behalf of its unit trust investors and private mandate clients.

Petaling Jaya, 4 January 2010 – Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd, one of the leading investment management companies in Malaysia, has announced the following income distributions for four of its Funds for their financial year/interim period ended 31 December 2009:

Pacific Dividend Fund                         – 4.50 sen per unit
Pacific Cash Fund                              – 0.25 sen per unit
Pacific Protected Islamic Cash Fund    – 0.40 sen per unit
Pacific SELECT Bond Fund                  – 1.00 sen per unit

This translates to the following distribution yields for investors based on the net asset value (NAV) per unit of the respective Funds prior to the distribution:

Pacific Dividend Fund                         – 6.85 %
Pacific Cash Fund                              – 0.50 %
Pacific Protected Islamic Cash Fund    – 0.40 %
Pacific SELECT Bond Fund                  – 0.98 %

“2009 has certainly been another challenging year for all markets and asset classes, as investors felt and reeled from the adverse impact of the near global financial and economic meltdown, especially the period from the last quarter of 2008 until March 2009. However, thankfully, local and global equity markets started to rebound from depressed multi-year lows from second quarter 2009 onwards and this relief/recovery bounce has continued right up till year end as the concern for a ‘global depression-like scenario’ faded quickly and anticipation of a global economic recovery led by the China and emerging markets story gathered momentum,” says Gary Gan, General Manager, Business Development & Marketing of Pacific Mutual.

Gan continues, “In spite of the severe market volatility, our equity Funds, including Pacific Dividend Fund, managed to generate attractive income and capital growth in 2009. The other three Funds, from a combination of prudent management and their inherently more conservative underlying investments, also generated decent income over the year in spite of record low interest rates environment in Malaysia and globally. Hence, we are pleased to be able to offer payouts to our valued and loyal investors of the respective Funds. We are also proud to announce that our equity fund, the Pacific Dividend Fund, emerged as the Best Malaysia Equity Fund at the Morningstar 2008 Fund Awards earlier this year, and is one of only nine Malaysian equity funds given the highest rating of 5 stars by Morningstar (source: Morningstar, 23 October 2009). Our consistent and stable performance for all our Funds over time coupled with the recognised performance achievements, reflect the hallmark of Pacific Mutual’s investment style and capabilities.”

With the declaration of 0.25 sen per unit, the Pacific Cash Fund, a money market fund, has distributed a total income of 6.23 sen per unit since its inception in October 2005 contributing to the Fund’s decent overall returns of 3.06% per annum since launch (source: Lipper Hindsight as at 21 December 2009), which ranks the Pacific Cash Fund in the Top Quartile versus its peers for YTD2009, 1-year and 2-year performance (source: Lipper Hindsight as at 21 December 2009). This consistent above-average performance and regular distribution track record bodes well for our other newer fixed-income funds, the Pacific Protected Islamic Cash Fund, a wholesale Islamic money market fund, which has declared an income distribution of 0.40 sen per unit, its second income distribution since its inception in February 2009 and the Pacific SELECT Bond Fund, a wholesale bond fund, which has declared a distribution of 1.00 sen per unit, the Fund’s first income distribution since its inception recently in July 2009.

Pacific Mutual now manages a total of 21 Funds, which include seven Funds with foreign investment mandates and three wholesale Funds. The Company also manages private mandate funds under its asset management business. As at end December 2009, Pacific Mutual manages RM1.86 billion on behalf of its unit trust investors and private mandate clients.