About Us

Nomura Asset Management Malaysia

Nomura Asset Management Malaysia obtained its fund management license in December 2006 from the Securities Commission Malaysia. The establishment of a local presence was part of our continued commitment to our clients in Malaysia, some of which, we have been servicing since 1990s from outside of Malaysia.

Nomura Asset Management Malaysia is a full-fledged asset manager with front-, middle- and back-office operations housed locally. We have grown from a 3-member team in 2006 to a combined staff strength of 46 (including Nomura Islamic Asset Management) as of 31 December 2021.

Our capabilities range from Domestic Equity, Domestic Fixed Income and Sukuk, Global Sukuk and Developed Markets Equities. Alongside Nomura Islamic Asset Management, we are signatories of the Malaysian Code for Institutional Investors. More of our efforts in Responsible Investing are published here.

As of 31 December 2021, the combined total assets under management of Nomura Asset Management in Malaysia stood at MYR 30.19 billion.

As of 30 November 2022, we have 11 funds with total AUM of MYR1.48 billion

Key Financial Highlights

Financial Year Ended MYR
Date 31.03.2022 31.03.2021 31.03.2020
Paid-up share capital 5,000,000 5,000,000 2,000,000
Shareholders’ funds 53,665,212 38,980,048 28,883,890
Revenue 59,287,418 50,290,351 44,382,354
Profit/Loss before taxation 22,162,435 12,573,974 7,768,271
Profit/Loss after taxation 17,685,164 10,096,158 5,068,596

Meet Our Key People

Leslie Yap

Managing Director / Country Head

Leslie Yap, CFA, is the Managing Director for Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., and the Country Head for NAM’s business in Malaysia, since 1 November 2021. Prior to his appointment as Managing Director, he was the Head of Investments in Malaysia (a role he held since Apr 2015) where he oversees the global equities, Malaysian equities and Malaysian Fixed Income & Global Sukuk portfolio management teams in Kuala Lumpur.

Leslie has over 24 years of industry experience in funds management and research coverage. Together with the Global Equities team in Kuala Lumpur, he is responsible for the investment management of global developed market equities of over MYR 7 billion (Sept 2021), on behalf of Malaysia and overseas-based institutional investors.

Leslie is one of the contributing member of the Global Equity Strategy Committee and the Global Stock Selection Committee in Nomura Asset Management. He is also the Investment Committee member at Nomura Islamic Asset Management

Leslie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Nottingham, U.K. He is also a CFA charter holder.

 

 


Swee Fung Teoh

Head of Malaysian Equities

Swee Fung Teoh joined NAMM as portfolio manager in Nov 2006 and currently heads and oversees the Malaysian Equities portfolio management team, with over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. Swee Fung is one of the contributing member of the Pacific Basin ex Japan Investment Strategy and Stock Selection committees.


Chooi Su May

Chief Administrative Officer

Chooi Su May is the Chief Administrative Officer of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. and oversees the Corporate Administration, Fund Administration and Trading departments. She joined the Company in 2008 and prior to assuming her current role, she was the Head of Compliance, Risk and Legal in the Company.

Su May has over 20 years of working experience in the areas of compliance, legal, operational risks, audit and tax from various local and international companies across audit & tax advisory, insurance and capital markets industries.


Eric Yeo

Head of Compliance, Risk and Legal

Eric is the Head of Compliance, Risk and Legal department at Nomura Asset Management Malaysia. He joined NAMM in 2015 and prior to that, Eric was Head of Trust and Agency Services, Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad and Compliance Officer at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (Malaysia) Berhad


Investment Committee

The Investment Committee members’ convene at least 4 times a year to review on investment offerings managed by Nomura Asset Management Malaysia. During the meetings, the members’ would review investment decisions undertaken on behalf of the funds’ managed by Nomura Asset Management Malaysia, evaluate on the investment performance of the funds’ against their respective investment objectives; as well as, deliberate on product development ideas.

Non-independent member

Hiew Teck Kong

Hiew heads the Malaysia Fixed Income & Global Sukuk team, with more than 23 years’ experience in the industry. Hiew Teck Kong is one of the contributing member of the Emerging Bond Investment Meetings in Nomura Asset Management and actively participated in marketing roadshows showcasing Nomura Islamic Asset Management and Global Sukuk capabilities locally and in the Middle Eastern region, amongst others.

Independent member

Johari bin Abdul Muid

Johari joined NAMM as an independent director in 2014. With over 30 years working experience in the financial industry, he started out his career as a money market dealer at CIMB Investment Bank before joining CIMB Securities to work in institutional sales. After 20 years with the CIMB Group, Mr Johari worked with several prominent financial firms in Malaysia. This includes ValueCap Sdn Bhd as Chief Investment Officer, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as Chief Investment Officer Equity and thereafter Deputy CEO, and RHB Bank Berhad as Managing Director. Mr Johari is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the United Kingdom.

Independent member

Julia Binti Hashim

Ms Julia joined the firm as an independent director on 27 August 2020 and brings with her over 30 years of working experience in the financial industry, since 1989. Ms Julia was previously at Principal Asset Management Berhad as the Chief Operating Officer, Asean region, overlooking operational divisions such as Finance, HR, Strategy, Legal, Risk, IT, Operations and Product Development across Principal Asset Management’s Southeast Asian entities. Before joining Principal Asset Management, Ms Julia was with CIMB Investment Bank Berhad for 23 years where her last position held was Head of Equities Malaysia and Head of Institutional Sales, ASEAN. Prior to that, Ms Julia was a fund manager at Arab Malaysia Investment Bank Berhad for 5 years. Ms Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Economics and Politics from University of London, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS).


Board of Directors

Managing Director / Country Head

Leslie Yap

Leslie Yap, CFA, is the Managing Director for Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., and the Country Head for NAM’s business in Malaysia, since 1 November 2021. Prior to his appointment as Managing Director, he was the Head of Investments in Malaysia (a role he held since Apr 2015) where he oversees the global equities, Malaysian equities and Malaysian Fixed Income & Global Sukuk portfolio management teams in Kuala Lumpur.

Leslie has over 24 years of industry experience in funds management and research coverage. Together with the Global Equities team in Kuala Lumpur, he is responsible for the investment management of global developed market equities of over MYR 7 billion (Sept 2021), on behalf of Malaysia and overseas-based institutional investors.

Leslie is one of the contributing member of the Global Equity Strategy Committee and the Global Stock Selection Committee in Nomura Asset Management. He is also the Investment Committee member at Nomura Islamic Asset Management.

Leslie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Nottingham, U.K. He is also a CFA charter holder.

Director

Atsushi Ichii

Atsushi Ichii was appointed as the Managing Director of Nomura Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd on 4 December 2020. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial and capital markets industry, from both the sell-side and buy-side. He began his career at Nomura Securities in 1991 and since then, he has undertaken various business development roles in Nomura Group and other Japanese financial institutions. Throughout his career, he has worked in various countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and countries in the Middle East, such as Bahrain and U.A.E

Independent director

Johari bin Abdul Muid

Johari joined NAMM as an independent director in 2014. With over 30 years working experience in the financial industry, he started out his career as a money market dealer at CIMB Investment Bank before joining CIMB Securities to work in institutional sales. After 20 years with the CIMB Group, Mr Johari worked with several prominent financial firms in Malaysia. This includes ValueCap Sdn Bhd as Chief Investment Officer, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as Chief Investment Officer Equity and thereafter Deputy CEO, and RHB Bank Berhad as Managing Director. Mr Johari is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants in the United Kingdom.

Independent director

Julia Binti Hashim

Ms Julia joined the firm as an independent director on 27 August 2020 and brings with her over 30 years of working experience in the financial industry, since 1989. Ms Julia was previously at Principal Asset Management Berhad as the Chief Operating Officer, Asean region, overlooking operational divisions such as Finance, HR, Strategy, Legal, Risk, IT, Operations and Product Development across Principal Asset Management’s Southeast Asian entities. Before joining Principal Asset Management, Ms Julia was with CIMB Investment Bank Berhad for 23 years where her last position held was Head of Equities Malaysia and Head of Institutional Sales, ASEAN. Prior to that, Ms Julia was a fund manager at Arab Malaysia Investment Bank Berhad for 5 years. Ms Julia holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Economics and Politics from University of London, School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS).

Chief Administrative Officer / Director

Chooi Su May

Chooi Su May is the Chief Administrative Officer of Nomura Asset Management Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. and oversees the Corporate Administration, Fund Administration and Trading departments. She joined the Company in 2008 and prior to assuming her current role, she was the Head of Compliance, Risk and Legal in the Company. She was appointed as director in June 2022.

Su May has over 20 years of working experience in the areas of compliance, legal, operational risks, audit and tax from various local and international companies across audit & tax advisory, insurance and capital markets industries.

Career

As part of a team, the candidate is responsible for performing portfolio valuation and fund accounting functions and ensure timely reporting and processing of trades and updates into system. Candidate currently or previously working in a fund operations services would be highly desirable.

Responsibilities:

  • Responsible for the preparation and reconciliation of the NAV and financial report and/or statement
  • Preparation of the necessary reports as required by the clients, management and others on daily, weekly, monthly and/or ad-hoc basis.
  • Ensuring fund valuation and reporting are completed within stated deadlines.
  • Ensure that all processing records are filed/ saved in an organized manner to facilitate easy retrieval when necessary.
  • Work with the compliance department on audits and regulatory reporting.
  • Coordinate income distribution for all unit trust and wholesale funds.
  • Assist in registrar function (when necessary), such as to ensure timely operational handling, execution and processing of customer transactional activities (subscription/redemption/switching) and update register records; review subscription/redemption/switching documentation for completeness and accuracy; monitor fund receipts and arrange redemption payments; responsible for a series of mutual fund processing, dealer commission and trailer fees, front and back end load and fee structures and relevant regulatory requirements.
  • Plan, manage and control all aspects of team operations.
  • Be willing to actively participate in every level of service required by the clients.
  • To participate in ad hoc project assigned by superiors.

Requirements:

  1. Degree holder with minimum of 5 or more years of experiences in unit trust and wholesale funds operations preferred.
  2. Direct experience with registrar and transfer agency services and exposure to different financial markets, instruments, settlement and reporting processes would be added advantage.
  3. Possess excellent PC skills (especially Microsoft Excel and VBA), Swift and/or project management would be highly desirable.
  4. Must be meticulous and accurate with good attention to detail.
  5. Able to work independently, under tight deadline with minimum supervision as well as in a team environment.
  6. Excellent time management, organizational and prioritization skills and good communication skills, both verbal and written.

This role will report directly to the Head of Fund Administration, responsible for the day-to-day investment operations matters and ensuring timely processing and settlement of trades, income and corporate actions.

Responsibilities:

  1. Monitor and ensure timely processing of trade matching and settlement instructions for both local and global markets in Equities, Fixed Income and other financial products and follow up on unmatched or failed trades.
  2. Ensure income collections and corporate actions events are performing timely and accurately and ensure all corporate action events response to custodian within timeline.
  3. Reconcile daily cash and investment holdings.
  4. Monitor daily cash movements as well as ensuring that all movements are captured in the system; and work closely with custodians and fund administrators to resolve reconciliation breaks.
  5. Ensure that all processing records are filed or saved in an organized manner to facilitate easy retrieval when necessary.
  6. Plan, manage and control all aspects of team operations.
  7. Willing to actively participate in every level of service required by the clients.
  8. To participate in ad hoc task or project assigned by superior i.e. preparation of the reports on daily, weekly, monthly and/or ad-hoc basis as required by the clients, management and others.

Requirements:

  1. Bachelor degree in a relevant discipline with minimum of five (5) or more years of experiences in back-office operations in the asset management or financial institution industry is required.
  2. Exposure and knowledge to different financial markets, instruments and settlement processes would be highly desirable
  3. Must be meticulous and accurate with good attention to detail.
  4. Able to work independently under the tight deadline with minimum supervision as well as in a team environment.
  5. A team player with good interpersonal and communication skills, both verbal and written.
  6. Possess excellent technical skills i.e. Excel and/or VBA, knowledge of DTCC – Central Trade Manager, Swift and/or project management and direct experience with fund accounting and reporting would be an added advantage.

The successful candidate will be supporting the Fixed Income investment team, whose primary responsibility includes research and investment management to institutional and corporate clients. The incumbent will be physically positioned in the Malaysian office with a direct reporting line to the Portfolio Manager.

The candidate will be given the opportunity to build a career in investment management through exposure across different departments within the company over a period of time. At the same time, the candidate will also be supporting portfolio managers in the following tasks:

  • maintaining information database relating to investment/research
  • preparing presentation and reporting materials for internal and external use
  • monitoring market developments
  • research on investment ideas
  • undertaking required responsibilities and providing the necessary support

 

Requirements:

  1. Degree in Economics/Finance/Banking/Commerce or equivalent; Other degrees may be considered
  2. Proficient in Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, Word etc.
  3. Mathematically inclined
  4. Strong interpersonal skills, friendly and trustworthy, with a high level of integrity and work ethics
  5. Ability to learn, retain and apply considerable amounts of information
  6. Ability to complete simultaneous tasks while under significant time pressure
  7. Well-organized, disciplined, impeccable attention to detail
  8. A team player