SC stats probe into SJ Asset activities
Filed Under (Other News) by Webmaster on 01-07-2010
Tagged Under : securities commission, SJ Asset Management
The Securities Commission (SC) has started investigating the activities of SJ Asset Management Sdn Bhd (SJAM), days after it stopped the company from managing new funds.
It also shed more light on how it came to examine SJAM, but stopped short of saying what was amiss at the fund management company despite queries by Business Times.
“We have commenced investigations into the activities of SJAM and appropriate action will be taken depending on the outcome of the investigations,” an SC spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, the SC ordered SJAM to stop getting new mandates and to maintain and preserve all records of clients’ trades and payments.
BDO Consulting Sdn Bhd was appointed to help assess SJAM’s books, accounts and records further.
However, BDO, hired early this year, now has its work scope expanded to include examining and monitoring SJAM’s transactions.
In an immediate response, SJAM chairman Datuk Kamaruddin Hamzah said that several directors and its management were giving their full cooperation to the SC.
“We have been in constant dialogue with the SC and other authorities and welcome the on-site examination of our records. We are giving our full cooperation,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Replying to questions from Business Times, the SC said it had enhanced its supervisory oversight of the fund management industry over the last few years.
Based on its risk-based supervision framework, the SC conducts examination of fund management companies in line with efforts to enhance investor protection.
The SC also undertakes thematic reviews of fund management companies’ operations and activities.
Kamaruddin, who is also one of the owners of SJAM Holdings Sdn Bhd – the parent company of SJAM – together with managing director Whai Onn Tan declined to comment further.
“Pending the conclusion of the SC’s examination, it would be improper for us to comment further,” he said.
Whai is also SJAM’s head of fund and portfolio management, while Kamaruddin sits on the board of directors of a few public-listed companies.
SJAM, a licensed fund company incorporated in 1992, manages regional investments in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea.
Its investment products include fund management, managed portfolio, investment services and private equity accounts.
Based on the company’s website, SJAM has authorised capital of RM10 million and paid-up of RM6.38 million.
Its investment portfolio targets active, quality-growth companies with reasonable prices.
