ASN, ASN2 and ASN3 - The Three Musketeers

Apart from the fixed priced PNB-Unit Trusts such as ASB,AS1M,ASW,ASM and ASD, PNB through its outfit, ASNB, also offers variably priced unit trusts whose prices are subject to market performance.

 I would like to focus on the three funds designated as ASN (1981- equity growth), ASN2 (1999-equity growth) and ASN3 (2001- equity balanced) : the Three Musketeers known for their risky adventures in 17th century France but in our funds' case, without the motto " All for one, one for all".

ASN, ASN2 and ASN3

Variable priced- Unit Trusts entail a fee of 5% (less if invested through EPF) at the point of every purchase and none at redemption.

Just before Christmas last year, PNB declared a dividend of 6.45 sen for ASN for the financial year ending 31 Dec 2013, which is the highest in 13 years. In fact if you look at the trend, the dividend for ASN has been rising annually. ASN is allocated for Bumiputras only.  And you can own as many units as you can afford as there is no set limit.

According to PNB Chairman, the total  income distribution with the total payout of 100.27 million benefited 1.25 million unitholders who hold a combined 1.55 billion units of ASN.

 And so if you bought 10k at 0.8624 ( price on 9 Jan 2013), you would end up with 10000/0.8624 = 11595 - 575 (sales charge) =  11020  units instead of 10,000 units for a fixed price unit trust at 1.00 with no sales charge per net asset value (NAV).

The advantage of this type of unit trust is that its price can appreciate (also depreciate) over times.  Should it increase to, say, 90 sen per unit, you would get 11020 x 0.90 = 9918 and at 6.45 sen dividend, your total will be 710.79 + 9918 =10,628 . An increase of roughly 628. And Should you redeem your investment at this point, you would roughly get 628+400 (NAV appreciation) = 1,028.00 which is a percentage return  of 10.28%  compared to 6.5% for AS1M as calculated below.

If you were to put in AS1M 10k and keep it for 12 months with a dividend of 6.5 sen you would get 650.00 on redemption (plus your initial capital of 10k) , without NAV appreciation or depreciation, a return of 6.5%.  The return, in the above case,would be higher still  if  you had bought ASN at a much lower price than 0.8624 sen.

As for ASN2 ( equity growth fund) which is also only for Bumiputra, the price has appreciated to 1.35 at the beginning of 2014 and is slowly, like ASN, coming down. The dividend for ASN2 will be declared in June of each year.

The third ASN Musketeer in the ASNB stable of variable priced Unit Trust is ASN3 (equity balanced fund) which is open to non-Bumiputra as well. Its dividend is annually declared end of November. Its price at the beginning of this year was 1.16.

The three - year (2011 -2013) performance of the three Musketeers is seen in the table below:

Unit Trust		ASN				ASN2				ASN3
Financial Year		2011	2012	2013		2011	2012	2013		2011	2012	2013
Dividend per unit (sen)		6.05	6.30	6.45		5.50	6.50	7.10		6.00	6.30	6.40
Yield (%)		7.39	7.42	NA		4.65	5.44	5.49		5.70	5.66	NA
Highest NAV		0.8841	0.9046	0.9213		1.2350	1.2588	1.3783		1.1510	1.2010	1.2231
Lowest NAV		0.7703	0.8127	0.8225		1.0192	1.0504	1.1948		1.0522	1.0495	1.1124

 Source : ASNB

The elements of risks are always there with variably-priced Unit Trusts. The opportunity to create  ( or lose ) wealth is what keeping investors on their toes. Stay invested so that you don't have to whine over missed opportunities. And needless to say, those who want to sleep well, you can always put your money in the bank at 2-3% interest per annum.

Over the years, I note that putting your money in any of the three Musketeers for people who are adapt at monitoring the respective NAV and stick to the principle of "Buy low and sell high", is a more effective method of growing your hard-earned money as seen by the above corresponding dividend rates compared to the fixed price Unit Trusts.

Swashbucklers- Athos,Porthos and Aramis
 ( Alexander Dumas Novel)

Smart buying and selling is the way to go as when you buy at lower NAV, the higher is your dividend yield.

If the rising dividend trends are sustained, you might just firstly check on the respective NAV and put more of your money in any of these three Musketeers and ride with them for more swashbuckling adventures in investing!