Sun Life AUMs up 33% to P8.1B in May

The total assets under management (AUMs), managed by Sun Life Asset Management Co. Inc. (SLAMC), has reached P8.1 billion end May, or a 33-percent increase over the same period last year.

SLAMC is a subsidiary of Sun Life Financial - Philippines, which in turn is a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies, a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of wealth accumulation and protection products and services to individual and corporate customers.

SLAMC also posted robust monthly gross sales increase of 76 percent in May versus last year’s level.

The fund manager’s good performance plus prudent management of operating expenses resulted in the impressive net income and sales growth.

SLAMC, likewise, reported a net income of P12.2 million end May 2006, for a 22.31-percent increase over the previous year.

In a statement, Sun Life Phils. president and chief executive officer Lorenzo V. Tan noted the investor’s confidence in SLAMC which is based on world-class expertise of Sun Life’s fund managers and advisors.

"We have a team with exceptional skills in wealth accumulation and management. This, plus our high operational standards and diversified product portfolio have made possible the consistent financial growth that we have experienced these past six years," Tan said.

Sun Life Phils. manages seven mutual fund products under its brand name of Prosperity Funds.

Sun Life Prosperity (SLP) Money Market Fund amounted to P606 million while its SLP Government Securities Fund reached P57.6 million.

SLP Bond Fund reached a record P6.4 billion while the SLP Dollar Abundance (Bond) Fund grew to P104 million. The SLP Philippine Equity Fund hit P452 million.

The SLP Balance Fund expanded to P903 million while the Dollar Advantage Fund settled at P735 million.

Sun Life Phils. officials admitted to experiencing some early redemptions albeit not enough to make a dent in its existing fund levels.

Tan said that the short-term volatility did not distract its client base from their long-term investment goal.

"Admittedly, there were a number of investors who still got somewhat nervous during the temporary dip in the price of their investments. However, many of them simply transferred and parked their monies temporarily in our Money Market Fund. This is a clear proof of our clients’ confidence in Sun Life Financial when it comes to managing their hard-earned money," Tan added.

Tan was referring to the dip in net asset value (NAV) in the bond funds which resulted in some redemptions.

But this was magnified in the unit investment trust fund (UITFs) which is managed by banks, and not by fund managers not allied with banks. UITFs are trust funds, not mutual funds (like Sun Life’s SLPs), which are managed by the trust department of banks.

The insurance and investment chief executive said the trust and confidence given by investors are rooted on the credibility of the people managing the company’s mutual funds.

In a separate statement, Sun Life said that the balanced and Philippine equity funds both outperformed the Phisix as they generated an actual year-to-date yield of 13.4 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively.

Tan said that their goal in the next five years was to manage funds amounting to P50 billion. The company is also intending to tap the broad C and OFW markets to further increase sales.