KUALA LUMPUR: Pelaburan Mara Bhd unit PMB Investment Bhd is now an Islamic fund management company with assets surpassing RM1 billion.

In a statement, PMB Investment chief executive officer Ameer Ali Mohamed said the Securities Commission Malaysia has approved its application on Monday for the conversion of its capital market services licence from regulated activity of fund management to Islamic fund management.

Ameer said he hopes this development would elevate PMB Investment in terms of products and services, performance and assets.

“We have been managing only syariah-compliant funds since March 7 this year, the day when the last two of our unit trust funds were officially made syariah-compliant. And now we are an Islamic fund management company.

“Being an Islamic fund management company will also distinguish PMB Investment from other unit trusts and portfolio managers that offer both conventional and syariah-compliant windows.

“Furthermore, this will be the right base for PMB Investment to expand regionally,” he said.

As at Nov 30, 2014, PMB Investment managed a fund size of RM1.09 billion. This represented growth of 135% over the RM463 million as at Dec 31, 2013.

Ameer hoped PMB Investment, as an Islamic fund manager, would be eligible for investment mandates, which were available for Islamic fund management companies’ development. These include seed funds by major institutions.

He said PMB Investment has achieved one of the targets under the 2011-2015 transformation plan of Pelaburan Mara.

The target set was for PMB Investment to be transformed into a syariah-compliant fund manager, which involved converting conventional unit trust funds and discretionary portfolio mandates into syariah-compliant entities.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on December 4, 2014.