Financial services company PT Fortis Investments on Thursday launched a new mutual fund product offering 100 percent capital protection to investors.

The company's president director, Eko Pratomo, said the new product, Fortis ProtekPlus I, provided an opportunity for Indonesian investors to participate in the global equity market through a rupiah-denominated investment without facing any currency exposure.

"We will invest about 80 percent of the collected funds in Indonesian government bonds and the rest in equity markets in the United States, Europe and Japan," he said.

He said the mutual fund, which is linked to the performance of 20 selected global blue chips, had the opportunity to gain from the upside potential of the equity markets at maturity,.

Among the blue chips are food manufacturer Nestle and financial company Internationale Nederlanden Group in Europe; Apple and telecommunications firm AT&T in the U.S.; and auto manufacturers Honda and Mitsubishi in Japan.

The mutual fund imagines an 11 percent gain in the first year and the potential of up to a 29 percent gain in the second year.

"Investors could gain between 0 percent to 29 percent (after a year) depending on the average performance of the 20 stocks," he said. "If the fund performs minus growth, the investors can get their capital back in full."

Citibank Indonesia has been assigned to market the mutual fund product, which is available only for the bank's customers with deposits of at least Rp 50 million (US$5,405). Customers should have at least Rp 10 million to invest in the fund, and are required to pay a 2 percent fee.

Investors who want to redeem their investments earlier than the maturity date will have to pay a redemption fee of 5 percent and are only allowed to do so every three months.

Operating in Indonesia since 1992, PT Fortis Investments, part of the European-based asset management company Fortis Investments, had total assets of about Rp 1.8 trillion under its management as of the end of December 2005.