Aims Fund Management announced on Tuesday (Jan 27) changes to several investment guidelines for its mainboard-listed Aims Property Securities Fund (APW).

It will raise its maximum underwriting exposure to any security from 20 per cent of the fund value to 100 per cent. While it had a requirement to cut this to 15 per cent within 12 months, it will now have a "best endeavours" requirement to reduce this to 19.9 per cent with the same time period.

It will also increase its maximum investment in any security to 100 per cent of the fund value, up from 15 per cent, and its maximum exposure to any one manager to 100 per cent, up from 20 per cent.

The maximum number of units it can hold in an investee fund is relaxed, from 19.9 per cent to 100 per cent, though the minimum size of investee funds is now reduced from $20 million to $5 million.

It has also dropped two guidelines to do with minimum net tangible asset backing in respect of investee fund and minimum independent research rating.

In a separate announcement, APW said it has bought 11.7 million ordinary units and 6.3 million preferred units in the Aims Property Fund, raising its stake there to 89.96 per cent. APW paid 43.2 cents per unit, which amounted to $7.8 million, including acquisition costs.

APW, listed in Singapore and Australia, invests in unlisted and listed property trusts, listed wholesale direct property funds and property companies, as well as cash and fixed interest securities.