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	What IUTA Status Means to BHLB Pacific Trust 09 October 2000 - The Star The following are the excerpts of the interview: Star:With BHLB Pacific Trust's recent conferment of the IUTA status, how has the company's role changed from its conventional one of being a unit trust fund manager? Low: Besides distributing its own funds, the company can now distribute third party funds. This means that now BHLB Pacific Trust can distribute funds on behalf of other unit trust management companies. We are now the distributor of funds for SBB Unit Trust Management Bhd, Multi-Purpose Unit Trust and Commerce Trust Bhd. The IUTA status would give us an added advantage in the sense that an investor can have a wider choice on the products he wishes to invest and we will assist him in recommending the fund based on his risk profile. Star: With the IUTA status in hand, what is the next immediate thing the company is looking at? Low: The whole idea right now after being granted the IUTA status is for us to move in the direction of financial planning. We have to move forward to face the challenges of the globalisation in financial services, especially with the advent of the World Trade Organisation where foreign companies will be able to penetrate the local market by offering various investment and financial-based products and services. Therefore to face these challenges, we have to prepare ourselves and take a liberal stand and offer various investment products that satisfy our customers' needs and risk tolerance. Star: You mentioned that financial planning would be the direction the company would be looking at. Can you elaborate on this? Low: There are three aspects of financial planning - protection (through insurance policy), wealth accumulation (via unit trust) and distribution (wills and trusts). We are working towards all these areas. The company hopes the Securities Commission will further liberalise its guidelines and then the company can proceed with its plans. Right now we have a product, Invextra, an insurance product which we offer to our unitholders. It's a 3-in-1 package product which covers life, personal accident and dread diseases claims. Investors are given a good discount rate on premiums. Star: Are there plans to tie up with other unit trust companies in distributing their funds? Low: Yes. We are currently talking to two unit trust companies. But to do so, the company has to educate and train its agents in distributing more than one fund since this is a new concept for us, we will gradually increase the funds the company distributes. Star: How many agents does the company have and are there plans to increase the number? Low: Right now we have more than 3,000 agents and plan to have a total of 5,000 by end of next year. Star: How much more sales does the company expect to make in view of its IUTA status since it now distributes other companies' funds as well? Low: For a start, we are targeting an increase of 10% of our total sales which currently stands at RM800mil. We hope to rake in higher sales in the near future. Star: Are there plans to launch any new funds? Low: At present the company manages seven funds. They are the BHLB Pacific Double Growth Fund, BHLB Pacific Emerging Companies Growth Fund, BHLB Pacific Savings Fund, BHLB Pacific High Growth Fund, BHLB Pacific Dana Al-Ihsan (Islamic Fund), BHLB Pacific Bond Fund and the BHLB Pacific Index-Linked Fund. Our total fund size in circulation is 2.5 billion units (value at RM2.3bil). We have applied to the SC and hopefully will introduce two more new funds - an equity fund and the other a balanced fund. Star: Coming to the stock market, do you expect the bearish sentiment to continue this year? Low: Yes. Though there will be two small rallies, pre-budget and window dressing by year-end but this will not create much impact and the KLSE Composite Index (KLCI) is expected to hover around 850 points. Many retailers are sidelined as there is no new direction for them to take and this is dampened by the lack of foreign funds in the market. This may be due to the imposition of capital controls. Foreign funds are also channeling their money into North Asia i.e. China, Japan and Hong Kong as they feel there are more opportunities in those markets.

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