BCI Fund Managers (Administradora de Fondos Mutuos), the asset management division of Chile’s BCI bank, said its end-of-year results will reflect a substantial increase in structured products business. Over the last year, the bank has grown its assets under management by more than 35%, while the number of retail investors has also grown by 23% over the same period, thanks to structured and capital-guaranteed products sales.BCI Fund Managers MD Gerardo Spoerer said the market has developed rapidly over the past few years. “Our consistent bet on structuring new investment alternatives and opening our products to the international capital markets has been pivotal for our growth,” he said.
The increasingly popular structured mutual fund wrapper (fondos mutuos estructurados) is expected to keep growing in 2008. “This kind of capital-guaranteed product has a double objective,” said Spoerer. “On the one hand, the structures are designed to maximise financial engineering, while offering strong growth potential in bear markets and high volatility market situations with no risk to capital. On the other hand, they are flexible enough to adapt to specific conditions for each product and market.”
BCI Fund Managers is currently marketing two capital-guaranteed structured funds. BCI Capital Trust Chile is an 18-month uncapped call linked to the performance of the Chilean stock market IPSA. This product guarantees 95% of initial investment and offers a participation of between 100% and 140% of index growth over the investment period. This product closes its offer period tomorrow (27 November).
Chilean retail investors can also invest in BCI Capital Trust Optimo, a three-year fund linked to the performance of a basket comprising the S&P500, DJEurostoxx50, Nikkei225, Bearn Stearns Aggregate Bond Index, DJ AIGF Commodities Index and the Bank of New York Emerging Markets ADR Index. The fund guarantees invested capital plus a participation of between 70% and 100% in the average basket growth over the investment term.
This product is available until 5 December. Both products require a minimum investment of CLP1m ($1,900).
