INTERNSHIP REPORT ON ASSET MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY & SHANTA ASSET MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Once defined as a third world country, Bangladesh has been recently promoted to developing countries. Bangladesh now has the potential to become the world's 23rd largest economy by 2050, overtaking countries such as Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Thailand, and Malaysia according to a recent report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Bangladesh has been included in the “Next Eleven” (N-11) economies of the world by Goldman Sachs while SCB has included Bangladesh in ‘7% Club’. Growth at 7% means the economy doubles in a decade. Moreover, in FY 14-15 Bangladesh graduated from the category of lower income country to lower middle-income country. The Bangladesh asset management industry is still in an early stage of development. In recent years the number of asset managers has substantially increased. Currently there are 37 registered Asset Management Companies who are managing 77 mutual funds. Among them there are 40 open-end mutual funds and 37 close-end funds available with Asset Under Management (AUM) totaling to approximately BDT 120bn. In Bangladesh Mutual funds have not yet been able to gain a significant share of investors’ wallet mainly due to lack of financial awareness among a major portion of the population while some investors continue to view mutual funds as trading tools as opposed to long-term savings tools. So as our economy matures and investors gain financial awareness we expect sharp rise in demand for mutual funds. Moreover, favorable demographics, rising income levels and a burgeoning affluent middle class will provide a strong customer base for the asset management industry. Shanta Asset Management Limited (SAML) received its Asset Management License from the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on November 26th, 2015. Their vision is to be the leading asset management company in the country in terms of the fund’s performance, assets under management and compliance. Investment team of SAML applies distinct and rigorous investment processes to the management of mutual funds and institutional portfolios to generate the lucrative risk adjusted return. I worked at Shanta Asset Management Ltd. as intern. My responsibilities was preparing and maintaining databases, analyzing the economic activities of the country, preparing write up featuring changes in macro-economic variables on the capital market and the companies and any other relevant job assigned by the management. I have learned lots of new things during my internship period at SAML. In conclusion it can be said that Shanta Asset Management Ltd. (SAML) recently started its journey in asset management industry but its performance is very good up to date. In this report overall condition of asset management in Bangladesh, Shanta Asset Management performance in asset management industry, my internship experience have been discussed. From the above discussion we can understand that asset management industry in Bangladesh performing well now. Still it is in at the stage of growth. It has enough opportunity to grow in the future.