WIKIFX REPORT: Inter-Pacific Asset Management wins Best Mixed Asset Award

Inter-Pacific Asset Management Sdn Bhds (InterPac) InterPac Dana Safi Fund won the award for Best Mixed Asset MYR Flexible (Islamic) in the three-year category, after seeing returns of 126.2%.

Its CEO, Datuk Dr Nazri Khan, says he is ecstatic over the funds win as it proves that the firm has been progressing in the right direction.

He adds that InterPac advocates the technology sector, with a specific focus on companies with strong fundamental potential growth over the long term. The technological landscape has drastically improved over the last few years, says Nazri, who believes this augurs well for the firms preference for companies that can survive over the long term.

“We first look into the fundamental aspects of a company to assess its earnings track record and the likelihood of staying profitable in years to come. We want a company that will continue growing strong in the future,” he explains.

“We then do a secondary assessment via the lens of technical analysis. Here, we see the movement of the stocks and assess momentum. This combination of technical and fundamental analyses has been the key enabler for us to achieve outsized gains in the market.”

Nazri adds that the firm runs an active portfolio as it trades relatively more frequently compared with other asset management houses. As a result, it was able to garner a higher-than-industry-average portfolio turnover.

“As we are actively trading our portfolios, we usually hold the minimal amount of cash in order to take part in these trades and to keep as a precautionary measure if the market presents an opportunity out of nowhere,” he says.

Looking ahead, Nazri believes that setting the right expectations is crucial in managing InterPacs funds as well as staying adaptive to the turbulent economic environment. In addition, backed by wide experience as a team, he says they were able to identify the right momentum to ride for a greater return.

He believes 2022 will be a continuation of 2021, further supported by robust forward earnings. “We maintain a barbell strategy by balancing secular growth and value recovery in sectors that were previously affected by the pandemic. However, we also adjusted our expectations of normalised earnings and, as such, expect the same for market performance as well,” he says.

“Looking at the Covid-19 pandemic landscape, our take is that trying to predict the progress, or even the end of the pandemic, is a futile attempt. We believe that we should stay exposed to resilient stocks in attractive markets that are capable of weathering any uncertainties.”