Kurnia Group
Kurnia Reaches Out to Foreign Retail Investors at AICE 2009
As part of Kurnia’s investor relations’ initiatives, the Group
had participated in the recent Asian Investment Conference and Exhibition 2009
(AICE) to reach out to more foreign investors. The two-day investors conference,
organized by Securities Investors Association Singapore (SIAS) was held at
Suntec, Singapore on 18 to 19 July 2009.
Kurnia Insurans (Malaysia) Berhad’s MD/CEO, Captain K.H. Chia shared
and presented the company’s significant turnaround and its current transformation
initiatives, aptly themed “Riding New Waves” to the retail investors.
He also highlighted on the company’s strong fundamentals and growth strategy
to a crowd of participants during the two-day seminar sessions. His key message
to the audience was to look out for a potential company like Kurnia Asia Berhad,
which they should not miss the boat and regret of not investing in this company
over the next 2-3 years.
At the booth, Kurnia pulled the crowd by distributing free safety whistles
to those who walked past our booth. The team took the opportunity to introduce
the Malaysian leading general insurer, while distributing the corporate presentations
to visitors. The main objective was to create awareness and promote the ‘KURASIA’ shares
counter to the foreign investors. At the same time, the team tried to convince
retailers to look out for this potential Malaysian company stock. Director
of Corporate Planning and Strategy Dr.James Tee, Chief Investment Officer Mr.Pankajkumar
and AGM of Group Corporate Communications / Investor Relations Ms.Irene Ang
were at the booth to address various enquiries from the crowd.
The response was overwhelming as the retail investors were all in smiles when
they received the safety whistles, which was a rather surprising and unique
gift compared to others. There were various funny comments on the whistles.
Some mentioned that it was a necessity only when they were in Malaysia with
the increasing crime rate. Some commented it was a good “siren” for
the ladies to carry around to safeguard themselves. Some even took a few more
pieces for the safety of their loved ones.
Kurnia had taken up a booth together with four other PLCs, namely Bursa Malaysia,
MyEG, Top Glove and Supermax at the mega investment education fair for retail
investors. During the Bursa’s conference, the Singaporean investors were
rather concerned and cautious about Malaysian stocks. They shared feedback
on the conversion of 1 lot from 1000 shares to 100 shares by Bursa, which was
not well received by the foreign retail investors as there were not much gains
after a deduction in their brokerage fees. They suggested to CEO of Bursa Malaysia,
Dato’ Yusli Mohamed to look into the matter as it will restrain foreign
investors to invest in Malaysian stocks. Other participating international
listed companies include CapitaLand, ARA Asset Management Limited, Sembcorp
Marine Ltd, Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, Wilmar International Limited
and many more.
The two-day conference which attracted over 8000 crowd, covered some interesting
topics on investment, such as “Stocks to Look Out for in 2009” by
DMG & Partners Securities, “Financial Planning in Times of Economic
Uncertainty” by MoneySense and “Value Investing in Turbulent Times” by
Investor Central, which got all the retail investors glued to their seats in
the seminar room.
Overall, Kurnia’s participation in this conference and exhibition was
a fruitful one, as it had certainly created more awareness of this local lead
general insurer amongst the Singaporean investors. Bursa Malaysia has announced
that the initiatives taken by the government, the strong performance of local
companies and the introduction of new measures, such as direct market access
and plan to reduce the minimum bid structure later this year will attract more
investors to the local bourse. The stock exchange has seen a reduction in foreign
participation. However, this was mitigated by the pick-up in retail activities,
which has risen especially in the second quarter while local institutions were
still very active. This proves the optimism and confidence of the investment
community, especially the retail investors to invest in Malaysia.
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Dr James giving a brief to Mr David Gerald, President/CEO of SIAS and
Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister in Prime Minister's Office |
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Captain Chia sharing corporate presentation aptly themed 'Kurnia Riding
on New Waves' with investors |
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The crowd of retail investors at AICE 2009 |
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Kurnia’s booth at AICE 2009 |