Yes I've been monitoring this one as well. We also hold TMBPIPF. A few years back I tended to hold only accumulation/non- dividend paying units in Thailand for unit trusts/ mutual funds for our holdings.

In more recent years I've started to add income/dividend paying units. Particularly in the wife's name as she can elect to receive them without the deduction of 10% WHT and as she's a non-tax payer there's no tax disadvantage.

I've noticed overall that dividends are less predictable (for me at least) in Thai unit trusts/ mutual funds than I'm used to in UK and other countries. Not just this fund but on others, where we've received dividends that seem below the natural yield of the holdings, and in some cases quite above.

Generally individual shares follow similar principals to UK shares. But when it comes to unit trusts holding these shares, as a collective scheme this doesn't necessarily always translate into dividends in the same way as it would in the UK.

Two of the key factors I think of might be at play here:

1) Certain Thai companies including the one I work as a SET listed company can't pay a dividend in a year when they make a loss. So I wonder to what extent and in what way this concept might carry forward into collective investment schemes like unit trusts when they look at individual reporting periods.

this may then get combined with the second observation

2) The way the unit trusts run. The distinction between capital account and income account for a unit trust/ mutual fund doesn't necessarily seem to be the same in Thailand.
In the UK, most unit trusts collect income from dividends, interest etc and charge expenses to the income account.
The capital account is for the capital side of things like the value of the investments held and price movements for these investments plus purchases/ sales outstanding settlements etc. (Some unit trusts also deduct charges from capital)
The unit trust generally pays its own distributions from the income account. Which is separate from the capital account.
So what happens is that unit prices go up and down based on the underlying shares held and create capital gains/losses, whereas the income from the unit trust is paid out based on income received minus expenses.
So units could go up or down in capital value but the income paid out is still based mainly on the income account, regardless of capital appreciation or depreciation.

In Thailand, it seems that distinction may not be there. I think dividends may be factoring in capital movements as well somehow. Plus combined with the point 1) this could explain what is happening

I had a brief look at the latest 2 sets of accounts for this fund, although haven't had much time to study in detail (they also seem only in Thai which makes reading slower)

www.tmbam.com/v6/en/mutual-fund-detail.php?f=423

30 June 2014 to 31 May 2015 (inception was 30 June 2014 so less than a full first year "annual accounts"); and
1 June 2015 to 30 November 2015 (half year accounts)

For the first annual accounts: income exceeded expenses and units appreciated in value. Dividends seem to flow reasonable freely, being mindful that it was a new fund and not a full year so may have a few distortions

For the 6 month period: income exceeded expenses but units fell in value. Dividends haven't been flowing regularly

These two being the only reported sets of accounts so far. They are at least consistent with the point 2) above

So it's possible they are "smoothing" dividends based on overall return rather than just return from the income account (income - expenses), i.e. just a different way of doing things / different approach. Instead of income - expenses, they're looking at income - expenses adjusted for capital appreciation/decrease

I queried their dividend policy for this fund with them.  They told me that the policy was only available in Thai, but then (much to their credit) had it translated into English for me within a few days.  (I can't imagine a UK fund translating documents into Thai for Thai investors.)   I attach the translation. To be honest, I can't really make much sense of it. Apparently the reason for the lack of a dividend for so long was "the dividend payment must not cause more losses to negative accumulated retained earnings for the period". I'm not exactly sure how a fund like this can have "negative accumulated retained earnings".

Saw we'd received our dividends yesterday for this.

With 5 dividend payments to date and the info above the picture is becoming clearer.

www.tmbam.com/v6/en/mutual-fund-detail-type4.php?f=423

Looks like an average of around 0.013 per quarter on a price of around 10 baht/unit = just over 5% per annum.

Seems reasonable given the yields on the underlying shares/REITs and then deducting around 1.19% in expenses. The caveat being broadly if the unit price drops below the 10 baht level, then you won't get a dividend.

All in all a reasonable yield, with some upside for capital growth. Some comfort also in a way that if I'm not around, and we use this as part of an income paying portfolio for the wife, then there are some restrictions on preventing capital erosion in the form of restricting dividends in bad times.

It seems they look on an overall basis - very similar to what happens for normal companies that aren't investment vehicles. When the unit price is below 10 baht, that means the fund has a (overall) retained loss, and negative retained earnings. The capital loss on units exceeds the income received. The distinction between income and capital account isn't there to the same extent

For me it's just swings and roundabouts. Different to what I've been used to. The counter argument on something like BRWM is that in many ways if a fund has suffered large falls it might be better to keep the money in the fund re-invested to take advantage of cheaper prices in the market. Paying out a dividend is akin to selling at the bottom of the market. Selling units at the bottom of cycles is what quickly erodes portfolio survival rates.
eg
1) fall 70%, pay out 5% on original, you now have only 25% left. That has to quadruple in value to get back to where you were.
vs
2) fall 70%, retain div, you have 30% left. That has to increase 3.33x to get back to where you were.

If the market rose 50% next year:
1) would have 37.5 % of original and 5 div
2) would have 45 % of original and no div

OK someone has the 5 extra div in the first case, but what would they do with it? In theory they could buy more shares, but that incurs transaction costs. In the second case if they really need the money they just sell some extra units.

Swings and roundabouts really. The Thai way is more conservative, but the UK way more consistent and predictable for income schemes.

If only things really were becoming clearer.  I've just received a letter through the post (dated 21st) informing me of a dividend for the period 3 March to 18 April.  Book close date is tomorrow.  No mention of the amount, or the actual payment date, though it's probably going to be in the first week of May based upon previous timings.

Incidentally, the letter is completely in Thai.  Not great customer service.  Similarly, there's no mention of this on the TMBAM website in English or Thai.

This fund continues to provide revelation after revelation. I'd assumed that it provided exposure to property companies investing primarily in Singapore and Thailand. And indeed that was the case until recently. However, I now see that the 5th largest holding at just under 6% is Mapletree Greater China Commercial Trust which only has 3 properties, in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. This irks me because (a) I don't want significant exposure to Chinese property, (2) the trust isn't well-diversified, (3) it yields much less (3.4%) than the other investments in the fund. I can't think of any other investment that has given me so many surprises.

There's a clear discrepancy between Bloomberg and Morningstar, the latter indicating 3.43%.

Morningstar Link: www.morningstar.com/stocks/XSES/RW0U/quote.html

Fairly sure they're the same stock. I'm probably missing something.

Looking at the trust's website I now discover their distributions are partly taken from capital. Seems a bit rum to me.

www.mapletreegreaterchinacommercialtrust.com/Investor-Relations/Distribution/Distribution_History.aspx

Using that site's figures suggests a yield of around the figure you mentioned 7+%.