Deciphering The Top 10 Performing "Growth Category" PRS Funds

It has been quite while since I put up a post on Private Retirement Scheme (PRS).  Having received quite a number of emails asking about what funds to invest into PRS recently, I've decided to put up a sequence of postings to review top performing funds from different PRS fund categories.

For this post, I will be looking at the performance of funds under the "Growth Fund" category (one of the three Core Categories under PRS).

What are the Core Categories under PRS?

Here's a screenshot taken from PRS site indicating what are the core categories, the recommended age as well as the permitted asset allocation for for each category.

PRS Core Funds

Growth Fund Category : Selecting Top 10 Performing Funds according to 2015 Total Returns (%)

I've decided to utilize the Total Returns (%) for 2015 to select the ten (10) top performing funds from the Growth Category. These ten funds would then be used for my review.

Growth Fund Category - Top 10 PRS funds ranked according to Total Returns (%) in 2015:-

Growth Fund - Top 10 Performing PRS Funds according to 2015 Total Returns

Annual Returns for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (as of 29 Feb 2016)

Now that I have selected the 10 Growth Funds for review, let us take a look at performance of each fund in terms of annual return for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (as of 29 Feb 2016).

Growth Fund - Annual Returns for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (as of 29 Feb 2016)

• The green boxes indicate annual returns that have outperformed the dividend returns of EPF for a particular year. 
• The returns in bold indicate the highest return among the ten funds for a particular year
• N/A : fund was not launched yet or fund did not go through a full one year term

Observation

Despite the fact that all ten funds are under the same category, the gap in term of annual returns between funds vary quite a bit. Just take 2015 as a sample whereby the number one ranked fund is 11% higher as compared to the 10th ranked fund. Why such a large disparity? This can be explained by looking at the asset allocation of each PRS fund. 

Unraveling the Top Performing Core Growth Funds

As mentioned above, the best way to find out the outstanding or poor performance of a PRS fund is through its asset allocation. By knowing where money is being invested, we can then have a rough gauge of the investing strategy employed by a particular PRS fund.

1) Kenanga OnePRS Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from Kenanga OnePRS Growth Fund Factsheet February 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

The fund is invested into Unit Trust Funds from the parent company. The general term for such investment is called "Collective Investment Scheme".

98% of the asset allocation of this PRS is invested into two unit trust funds:

• 69.15% - Kenanga Growth Fund : A top performing Equity Malaysia unit trust fund, Multiple Lipper Awards winner and rated 5 out of 5 Star by Morningstar)
• 28.86% - Kenanga Bond Fund : A very low risk fund under Category Bonds-Malaysia. Rated only 2 out of 5 Star by Morningstar

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• Kenanga OnePRS Growth returned 20.91% 
• Kenanga Bond Fund returned 2.45%.

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Equity/Stocks in Malaysia via Unit Trust fund
• Bonds in Malaysia via Unit Trust fund

2) AmPRS - Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from AmPRS-Growth Fund Factsheet February 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains a mixture of Collective Investment Scheme and direct equity (stocks) holdings.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 31.09% - AmConservative Fund : A low risk balanced unit trust fund under Category Blended-Conservative funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar. 
• 3.93% - AmMalaysia Equity Fund : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity Malaysia - Large Cap funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 54.6% - Direct investment into equities (stocks) from different countries and sectors
• 10.38% - Cash and others

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• AmConservative Fund returned 5.48%
• AmMalaysia Equity Fund returned 12.26%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Direct equity (local and overseas)
• Equity and bonds via Unit Trust fund
• REITs
• Fixed Income instruments

The securities that the AmPRS-Growth Fund invests in will be traded and/or listed in the following countries, includes but not limited to Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. For AmPRS-Growth Fund, foreign investments (if any) will be limited to 50% of the Fund's asset allocation.

3) Public Mutual PRS Islamic Growth Fund

Unable to locate and download factsheet from Public Mutual PRS site. No review will be done unless someone can provide me with the fund factsheet for this PRS fund.

4) CIMB Islamic PRS Plus Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from CIMB Islamic PRS Plus Growth Fund Factsheet January 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains only Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 39.12% - CIMB Islamic Asia Pacific Equity Fund : A very high risk unit trust fund under the Category Equity-Asia Pacific ex-Japan (Syariah) funds. Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 29.30% - CIMB Islamic Equity Fund : Could not find information of this fund
• 15.02% - CIMB Islamic Sukuk Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds - Malaysia (Syariah). Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar
• 14.94% - CIMB Islamic Enchanced Sukuk Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Blended - Conservative Category. Rated 2 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• CIMB Islamic Asia Pacific Equity Fund returned 14.87%
• CIMB Islamic Sukuk Fund returned 3.53%
• CIMB Islamic Enhanced Sukuk Fund returned 3.98%

Future Performance of this PRS fund

There is no active management for this particular PRS fund. Future performance of this PRS fund would be dependent on the performance of all the unit trust funds listed above.

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Syariah compliant equity/stocks in Malaysia and Asia Pacific via Unit Trust fund
• Sukuks or Islamic Bonds in Malaysia via Unit Trust fund

5) Manulife Shariah PRS - Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from Manulife Syariah PRS - Growth Fund Factsheet February 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains only Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 39.71% - Manulife Shariah-Dana Ekuiti : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Mid/Small-cap (Syariah). Not rated yet by Morningstar.
• 24.80% - Manulife Investment As-Saad : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds - Malaysia (Syariah). Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar
• 14.93% - Manulife Investment Al-Ma'Mun : A very low risk unit trust fund under Category Money Market - Malaysia (Syariah). Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar
• 10.04% - Manulife Investment Al-Faid : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Mid/Small-cap (Syariah). Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 9.97% - Manulife Investment Al-Fauzan : A high risk unit trust fund Category Equity - Malaysia Income Category. Rated 5 out 5 Stars by Morningstar.

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• Manulife Shariah-Dana Ekuiti returned 15.48%
• Manulife Investment As-Saad returned 2.87%
• Manulife Investment Al-Ma'Mun returned 3.34%
• Manulife Investment Al-Faid returned 9.02%
• Manulife Investment Al-Fauzan returned 9.82%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Syariah equities/stocks in Malaysia via Unit Trust fund
• Sukuk (Islamic Bond) in Malaysia via Unit Trust fund
• Low risk Money Market

6) AIA PAM-Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from AIA PAM-Growth Fund Factsheet January 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains direct holdings of local equities, foreign equities, bonds as well as Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 15.60% - iShares MSCI Asia ex-Japan ETF : Could not find exact fund name. Instead found iShares MSCI Pacific ex Japan ETF which is a high risk ETF invested into equities from Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore. 
• 13.32% - Investec GS Asian Equity : An overseas unit trust fund under the Category Asia ex Japan Equity. Rated 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar UK.
• 68.32% - Direct investments into local & foreign equities as well as fixed income instruments
• 2.76% - Cash

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• iShares MSCI Asia ex-Japan ETF returned -8.88%
• Investec GS Asian Equity returned -5.44

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Overseas equities/stocks via ETF and Unit Trust fund
• Direct equity (local and foreign)
• Fixed Income instruments such as bonds

7) RHB Retirement Series - Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from RHB Retirement Series - Growth Fund Factsheet February 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains only Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 67.70% - RHB Goldenlife 2030 : A medium risk unit trust fund with exposure to Malaysia equities and fixed income instruments. Not rated yet by Morningstar.
• 22.11% - RHB Goldenlife Today : A low risk balanced unit trust fund under Category Blended-Conservative funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• RHB Goldenlife 2030 returned 9.30%
• RHB Goldenlife Today returned 6.47%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Local equities/stocks via Unit Trust funds
• Fixed Income instruments such as bonds via Unit Trust funds

8) Manulife PRS-Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from Manulife PRS-Growth Fund Factsheet February 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains only Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 39.50% - Manulife Equity Plus Fund : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Large-cap funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 20.01% - Manulife Bond Plus Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds -Malaysia funds. Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 15.05% - Manulife Investment Al-Ma'Mun : A very low risk unit trust fund under Category Money Market - Malaysia (Syariah). Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar
• 9.90% - Manulife Shariah-Dana Ekuiti : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Mid/Small-cap (Syariah). Not rated yet by Morningstar.
• 9.89% - Manulife Investment Value Fund : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Mid/Small-cap funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar
• 4.83% - Manulife Investment Bond Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds -Malaysia funds. Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 0.82% - Cash

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• Manulife Equity Plus Fund returned 4.91%
• Manulife Bond Plus Fund returned 5.90%
• Manulife Investment Al-Ma'Mun returned 3.34%
• Manulife Shariah-Dana Ekuiti returned 15.48%
• Manulife Investment Value Fund returned 14.89%
• Manulife Investment Bond Fund returned 3.30%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Local equities/stocks via Unit Trust funds
• Fixed Income instruments such as bonds via Unit Trust funds

9) CIMB-Principal PRS Plus Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from CIMB-Princiap PRS Plus Growth Fund Factsheet January 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains only Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 38.65% - CIMB-Principal Asian Equity Fund : A very high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Asia Pacific ex-Japan funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 29.20% - CIMB-Principal Asia Pacific Dynamic Income Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds -Malaysia funds. Rated 5 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 28.19% - CIMB-Principal Bond Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds -Malaysia funds. Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 3.96% - Cash

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• CIMB-Principal Asian Equity Fund returned 9.46%
• CIMB-Principal Asia Pacific Dynamic Income Fund returned 8.91%
• CIMB-Principal Bond Fund returned 3.12%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Local and overseas equities/stocks via Unit Trust funds
• Fixed Income instruments such as bonds via Unit Trust funds

10) Affin Hwang PRS Growth Fund

Asset Allocation:

Taken from Affin Hwang PRS Growth Fund Factsheet January 2016

Characteristics of this fund:

This PRS fund contains a large percentage of Collective Investment Schemes.

The breakdown of asset allocation for this fund are as listed below:

• 26.4% - Affin Hwang Select Bond Fund : A low risk unit trust fund under Category Bonds - Asia funds. Not rated yet by Morningstar.
• 14.9% - Affin Hwang Select Asia (ex Japan) Quantum Fund :  A very high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Asia Pacific ex-Japan funds. Rated 5 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 14.3% - Affin Hwang Select Asia (ex Japan) Opportunity Fund : A very high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Asia Pacific ex-Japan funds. Rated only 3 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 14.2% - Affin Hwang Global Equity Fund : A wholesale feeder fund with 70% NAV invested into a target fund called Nikko AM Shenton Global Opportunities Fund. Remaining 30% is invested money market instruments.
• 9.6% - Affin Hwang Select Opportunity Fund : A high risk unit trust fund under Category Equity - Malaysia Large-cap funds. Rated 4 out of 5 Stars by Morningstar.
• 20.6% - Mixture of Cash, Money Market Instruments and Fixed Income Instruments

2015 Returns of Collective Investment Schemes under this PRS fund

• Affin Hwang Select Bond Fund returned 7.28%
• Affin Hwang Select Asia (ex Japan) Quantum Fund returned 9.40%
• Affin Hwang Select Asia (ex Japan) Opportunity Fund returned 10.30%
• Affin Hwang Global Equity Fund (this is a wholesale feeder fund where the target fund has returned 10.09% as of YTD 31 Oct 2015)
• Affin Hwang Select Opportunity Fund returned 2.03%

Investors risk exposure when investing into this fund:

• Local and overseas equities/stocks via Unit Trust funds and Wholesale feeder fund
• Local and overseas fixed income instruments such as bonds via Unit Trust funds
• Money market

SUMMARY
PRS funds with Local and Overseas Equity exposure

PRS funds containing Lipper Award Winning fund and 5 Star Morningstar rated fund

Conclusion
Based on the ample amount of information and data provided for each PRS fund, I believe you should now be able to decide which Core Growth PRS fund is suitable for you, if you intend to invest into PRS.

For those whom are not yet familiar with PRS, do check out my older postings below:

1. Private Retirement Scheme (PRS), What's In Store For Investors? - Part 1
2. Private Retirement Scheme (PRS), What Is The Expected Performance? - Part 2
3. Private Retirement Scheme (PRS), Enjoying The Benefits of Tax Relief - Part 3

That's all for this post! Do follow Invest Made Easy for upcoming reviews of other PRS categories.

Cheers and Happy Investing!

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The Lipper Award 2016 has just ended recently and the results are out! And to celebrate the winners, eUnittrust is bringing you the opportunity to invest into 22 Lipper Award winning unit trust funds for as as low as 0% sales charge!

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Another plus point about this promotion is the extended period that it will be held! Starting on the 10th of March 2016 and ending on the 29th of April 2016, investors have 51 days to read up, research and cherry pick the best fund to invest in! Now here are the details for the 2nd Sales Charge promotion organized by eUnittrust for 2016!

Details of the Edge-Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Malaysia Awards 2016 promotion:
Promotion Period:

From 10 March 2016 to 29 April 2016

Number of award winning funds under this promotion:

22 funds from 9 fund houses!

List of Funds under this promotion, Lipper Awards won and Sales Charge promotion rate:

No	Awards	Amanah Mutual Berhad	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
1	Bond MYR (3 years and 5 years)	AMB Income Trust	1	0
2	Equity Malaysia Income (10 years)	AMB Ethical Trust	1	0
No	Awards	AmFunds Management Berhad	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
3	Equity Asean (3 years)	AmASEAN Equity	1	0
4	Bond MYR (10 years)	AmDynamic Bond	0	0
5	Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan (10 years)	AmCumulative Growth	1	0
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			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
6	Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan (3 years)	CIMB-Principal Asia Pacific Dynamic Income Fund	1	0
	Equity Asia Pacific Ex Japan - Islamic (3 years)
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			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
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9	Equity Malaysia Small and Mid Caps (3 years and 5 years)	Eastspring Investments Small-Cap Fund	1	0
10	Equity Greater China (5 years)	Eastspring Investments Dinasti Equity Fund	1	0
11	Equity Malaysia - Islamic (10 years)	Eastspring Investments Dana-al Ilham	1	0
12	Mixed Asset MYR Flexible - Islamic (3 years and 5 years)	Eastspring Investments Dana Dinamik	1	0
No	Awards	KAF Fund Management	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
13	Equity Malaysia Small and Mid Caps (10 years)	KAF Vision Fund	1	0
No	Awards	Kenanga Investors Berhad	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
14	Equity Malaysia (5 years and 10 years)	Kenanga Growth Fund	1	0
No	Awards	Pheim Unit Trusts Berhad	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
15	Mixed Asset MYR Balanced - Islamic (3 years, 5 years and 10 years)	Dana Makmur Pheim	1	0
No	Awards	PMB Investment Berhad	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
16	Equity Malaysia (3 years)	PMB Shariah Aggressive Fund	1	0
	Equity Malaysia - Islamic (3 years and 5 years)
No	Awards	RHB Asset Management Sdn Bhd	Sales Charge (%)
			Promotional
			Below	RM5,000
			RM5,000	and above
17	Equity Malaysia Diversified (3 years and 5 years)	RHB Emerging Opportunity Unit Trust	1	0
18	Mixed Asset MYR Balanced - Malaysia (3 years, 5 years and 10 years)	RHB Smart Balanced	1	0
19	Mixed Asset MYR Balanced - Conservative (3 years, 5 years and 10 years)	RHB Smart Income	1	0
20	Mixed Asset MYR Flexible (5 years and 10 years)	RHB Growth and Income Focus Trust	1	0
21	Equity Malaysia Diversified (10 years)	RHB Equity Trust	1	0
22	Bond MYR - Isamic (3 years, 5 years and 10 years)	RHB Islamic Bond	0	0

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A step by step guide to open an eUnittrust account from Shane See

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