The New Nation - Internet Edition

Xinhua, Kuala Lumpur

Smaller Malaysian fund management houses are looking for tie-ups with strong foreign fund managers, a local daily reported here yesterday.

The Star said that the managers' move aimed to forge strategic alliances with reputable foreigners in the midst of the ongoing liberalization in the country's financial sector.

A fund official, who is declined to be named, told The Star that this was also a way to raise the market share of the Malaysian smaller fund managers globally. The official also said that collaborating with foreign counterparts to increase local presence was something foreign fund managers did as well.

A local fund management company's chief executive officer Mohamad Ayob Abu Hassan echoed the official's view. Ayob, from Affin Fund Management Bhd, revealed that the company had engaged BEA Union Investment in Hong Kong.

He said Affin Fund Management hoped to make inroads into the Middle East market by tapping into BEA Union's business contacts while gaining opportunities to invest in the regional fund yet to be launched by the later.