Since its founding in 1997, PT Sucorinvest Asset Management has been committed to focusing on investors’ objectives and generating competitive returns, and has received various domestic and international awards. Wanda Rich, editor of Global Banking & Finance Review, spoke to Sucorinvest’s Chief Executive Officer, Jemmy Paul Wawointana, to talk about AUM growth, the challenges of 2020 and the new ways they are reaching out to their customer base.

How was PT Sucorinvest Asset Management established and how has it developed over the years?

PT Sucorinvest Asset Management has held an AM license since 1999 and manages a number of mutual funds that have won numerous accolades at home and abroad. Last year and in 2021, we were awarded South East Asia’s Best Asset Management Company by Global Banking & Finance Review. As of April 30, 2021, Sucor Asset Management has managed more than Rp 15 trillion in AUM. Holding the trust of more than 340,000 retail customers, Sucor Asset Management educates, serves and manages public funds for a better and more prosperous Indonesia.

How has Sucorinvest adapted operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

During the past four years we have reached out for more partnership with banks and other selling agents, which of course has positively contributed to our AUM’s significant growth. It has also bolstered our customer base’s shift to the retail segment, delivering more stability to our fund flow. These partnerships have proven to be very effective, especially during pandemic times, where most of our distribution channels have already had online channels for onboarding new customers and also for performing transactions, hence contributing significantly to our 2020 YTD 95.08% mutual funds’ AUM growth and 244.55% investor accounts’ growth. In 2021 we will continue to reach out to more distribution channels. We will also continue to offer financial education and inclusion to the general public and our partners through various webinars and other online channels, such as social media etc.

We continue to adapt and implement remote working and split teams for our daily business and operations. Meanwhile, all activities with our partners and engagement with our investors will remain being conducted via virtual meetings and various social media platforms. We foresee this norm will stay in the industry for at least a year and a half. Therefore, we are keen to innovate and always improve on how we communicate to our stakeholders.

Why should investors choose Sucorinvest over other asset management companies?

Firstly, as the most active asset manager in Indonesia, we hold a unique philosophy that finds value in each business and market cycle for our alpha creation processes. By combining the top-down and bottom-up approach, we invest in assets that we believe will outperform their sector for our portfolio. In asset selection, we consider their valuation, growth potential, peer comparison, statistical analysis, microstructure, and any special situations that could affect the prevailing securities’ yield or return. Our philosophy has caused our mutual funds to outperform the benchmark – and even its competitors – consistently in the past three to five years.

Secondly, in line with our company’s vision – ‘To help people create wealth, and preserve it, so they can celebrate life’ – we took time to listen to and embrace our customers. You can see it in our interactions, our content, our comments, the IGTVs, the seminars we hold etc. We are not just active in our investment strategy, but also in our communication and education strategy. Our strong sales team and product development team have been the leaders in our active pursuit of client feedback, input and enquiries. We strongly believe our clients’ long-term trust and confidence in us are the most important values in the financial industry. One key to achieving that, we believe, is to maintain close relations with clients – even during market turbulence. This persistence has proven to be highly beneficial in developing strong, personal connections with our clients, and thus ensuring feedback, comments and enquiries flow easily and are settled constructively.

What are the current opportunities you see for investors right now?

We foresee that ESG and Sharia investment will be a trend in Indonesia as the number of domestic investors continues to grow. Since last year, we have already prepared and built the infrastructure to support us in sustainable investing. We hope we can launch our ESG fund and additional Sharia product in 2021.

How do your advisors help clients to achieve the best returns?

We work closely with our clients to help them develop a clear understanding of their profiles and reasonable expectations for their investment objectives. This approach has helped us to determine the appropriate asset allocation and design customised investment portfolios to maximise the rate of return with due regard to risk.

What advice do you have for them for riding out the increasingly volatile market?

Always stay on your course. Making impulsive decisions based on short-term fears of losing money can harm your long-term financial health. Diversification and taking a long-term approach would help reduce risk when investing in volatile markets.

What was your best performing fund in 2020?

We are delighted to close 2020 with all of our publicly available open-ended funds recording positive performances, as well as beating their respective benchmarks. Our balanced fund, Sucorinvest Citra Dana Berimbang, recorded a positive performance of 29.37% throughout 2020 and outperformed its benchmark by 29.73%.

Have you launched any new products recently?

In our 2021 pipeline we will launch three public funds, namely: Sucorinvest Sharia Sukuk Fund, a Sharia-based fixed income product; Sucorinvest Monthly Income Fund, a fixed-income fund with a distributed income feature, and Sucorinvest Sustainability Equity Fund, an ESG-based equity fund.

What is your long-term strategy for continued success?

We are continuously committed to delivering consistent returns without disregarding any risk and regulations corridor. To increase our service quality for our growing number of investors, we expanded to social media by introducing a friend-like customer service that will find a solution to all their investment needs and questions. This helps us to reach wider audiences and increase brand awareness and loyalty.

Indonesia’s financial market is experiencing the rise of new investors, despite the market turbulence since last year. In 2020, Indonesian Single Investor Identification (SID) has grown by 78.95%, and the majority of this growth came from the 20 to 35-year-old demographic. Last year, our number of investors grew by 244.52% to 281,448, thus our AUM composition has shifted to 61.04% heavier on the retail investor side, compared to institutional clients that only accounted for 38.96%. We expect this growth to continue, along with easier access to information and education on financial products in Indonesia. We have been shifting our focus to tap into the retail investor market in the last four years.