The new RMB share class for the JPM ASEAN Equity Fund will be available from 21 July with a minimum investment amount of RMB16,000 ($2500, £1500).
The fund house said it was encouraged by the demand for RMB products after it added one for its JPMorgan Asian Total Return Bond Fund in June, having at the time indicated it would add RMB share classes for other funds.
In addition to the Asian Total Return Bond Fund and ASEAN Equity Fund, the company also offers an RMB hedged share class on its Asia Equity Dividend Fund and Multi Income Fund.
Eddy Wong, head of intermediary business said: “Since we are seeing massive demand for investment alternatives of RMB holdings, we are very pleased to pioneer in providing RMB-hedged class to a wide-range of products to meet such growing need.
“The newly introduced RMB-hedged class is designed for investors who would like to participate in the investment opportunities within the Association of Southeast Asia Nations region without giving up the potential growth they see in RMB.”
The fund currently offers US dollar, HK dollar and AUS dollar hedged classes and aims to provide long-term capital growth by investing primarily in the securities of companies with significant assets in, or earnings derived from, one or more of the countries in ASEAN region.
According to Pauline Ng, manager of the JPM ASEAN Equity Fund, the region deserves to trade at a higher valuation than the rest of Asia due to its higher earnings growth prospects, which are being driven by favorable demographics, rising infrastructure investment, and potential political reform.
“We remain confident in the structural earnings growth story for the ASEAN region,” Ng said.
As of 30 June, the top three country picks of the $916m sized-fund were Singapore with a 29.4% portfolio weighting, followed by Malaysia (21.2%), Thailand (18.6%) and Indonesia (18.2%).
The scheme levies initial charge of 5% of net asset value and management fee of 1.5% per annum.
JPMAM has about $85.8bn (£50.06bn) in assets under management across the Asia Pacific region as of end of June.
Many asset managers are seeking to tap the demand for RMB products by launching new funds or introducing new share classes following the Chinese government’s measures to take the RQFII pilot programme out of Hong Kong to countries such as Singapore, London with Germany and South Korea being the latest to receive RQFII quotas.
HSBC Global Asset Management was the latest one to unveil a Chinese RQFII fixed income fund earlier this week while Nikko Asset Management has already announced its plans of launching a China onshore bond fund.
Fund houses like BlackRock was recently granted RQFII license for UK as well as North Asia subsidiary while Fullerton and UK-based Ashmore have also secured such licenses earlier.
