A Brief History

The AIN Partnership (the Partnership) current portfolio is a continuity of my initial foray into stocks eight years ago as an undergraduate student captivated by businesses. Upon graduation I ventured into real estate investments, at the same time I placed my cash in the Amanah Saham Bumiputera (ASB) fund.  One fine day I thought “why not investing directly in Malaysian stocks?” since I already had prior experience at that, rather than letting someone else doing it for me. Yes, the ASB dividends return were satisfactory, and I have no complains at all compared to the mediocre returns by many more unit trusts fund out there. But I yearn for higher yields, as well as capital appreciation.  The realization came when the Malaysian stock market suffered in 2008. As an active buyer, the timing couldn’t come better or sooner for me, a budding investor looking to buy stocks on the cheap. By 2010, some of stocks actually gained by more than 100%, some of them lose up to 15% of its value at time of liquidation. I sold off most of my holdings from 2008 in mid-2011. Overall, I gained (I do not have proper record of these so please take it with a pinch of salt).

I revived my stocks investment in Q3 2011 via AIN Partnership, with initial capital of RM21,200 that came from myself as the Majority Partner and others. The aim of the fund is to achieve higher return that what the same amount will earn if invested in the ASB fund over a year. For guidance, in 2011, ASB yield is 8.80 sen (7.65 sen dividend + 1.15 sen bonus). The Partnership return by 30^th December 2011 is 11.8%. To give an example, a RM21,200 subscribed to ASB fund as of 1^st January 2011 with no additional units bought the whole year will see its value at 30^th December 2011 at RM22,850 (about 7.8%. ASB calculation of returns is not simple interest calculation. For more information go Google “asb calculator”). A RM21,200 placed in trust account of the Partnership in 1^st January 2011, but only utilized to purchased stocks in Q3 2011, will see its value at RM23,700 on 30^th December 2011. The Partnership met its ‘objective’ in 2011, so to speak.

However, for proper comparative and investment principles reason, I feel three years (at minimum) would be a better time frame for the Partnership to start comparing its return to others. I reckon in three years we would have enough bear and bull market with violent and mild swings to really justify the Partnership decision to manage its own funds and compare it to the performances of ASB fund. Else, we might as well liquidate and return our money to ASB fund to manage it for us. For the time being, we shall strive, and would be content with beating the ASB in terms of absolute returns between first day to the last day of a given calendar year, with no minimum commitment.