Bangkok, Thursday 14 February 2019 - SEC is conducting a public hearing on the principle of seeking a unitholders’ resolution to revise and modify a mutual fund project to facilitate unitholders exercising their rights to vote to protect their interests in accordance with the Public Limited Companies Act, and to clearly define the framework for SEC approval.
SEC has amended the procedure to make it
easier for asset management companies to seek a unitholders’ resolution to
revise or modify a mutual fund project and its management procedure by
organizing a unitholders’ meeting or through a letter seeking the unitholders’
resolution. As an alternative, asset management companies are allowed to seek a
unitholders’ resolution if the unitholders attending the meeting or replying
the letter hold at least 33% of the total investment units, and the number of
unitholders must be at least 25 or half of the total number of unitholders.
Previously, a resolution could be sought only when at least half of the total
number of unitholders attended the meeting or returned the letter.
Asset management companies must receive at
least 50% of the total votes of unitholders attending the meetings or sending the
vote letter if it is a resolution on general matters such as changing the fund type
from a closed-end fund to an open-end fund or merging funds to reduce operating
costs, and at least 75% if it is a resolution on significant issues (e.g.changing the fund type from a fixed
income fund to an equity fund or paying
redeeming unitholders with other assets).
Moreover, SEC is considering allowing asset
management companies to organize meetings via electronic platforms, provided
that there is a proper control system to ensure IT security for online meetings.
Audio and/or video recordings, as the case may be, of an entire meeting shall
be permitted, including the recording of computer traffic data generated by
such recordings. A notice for a unitholders’ meeting and other related
documents may be sent electronically.
At the same time, SEC is setting out a
clear guideline for determining in which cases asset management companies may
seek an approval from SEC regarding the revision and modification of mutual
fund projects. SEC may approve the
revision of a project if the revision does not have material impact on the unitholders
and does not significantly alter the returns and risks of the fund, for
example, the calculation and announcement of asset value, unit value, subscription
and redemption prices.
The consultation
paper can be found at www.sec.or.th/hearing. Stakeholders and interested parties are welcome to give
comments and suggestions via SEC’s website,
or facsimile at 0-2263-6116 or 0-2263-6456, or email: pheangna@sec.or.th or phakhaku@sec.or.th. The public
hearing ends on 22 February 2019.
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