KARACHI, April 15: ABAMCO Limited — the largest mutual fund managers in the private sector — with Rs27.2 billion under management, announced results of 10 funds under its management for the nine months period July 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006.
The board of directors of ABAMCO, which met in the morning on Saturday, declared interim cash dividend at 17.5 per cent for ABAMCO Composite Fund. The aggregate payout thus stood at 35 per cent for the nine months including the 17.5 per cent already paid in December 2005.
Following the declaration of the results of both the open and closed-end funds, a press briefing was held, jointly addressed by the Chairman ABAMCO Limited, Munawar Alam Siddqui and Chief Executive Najam Ali.
They observed that ABAMCO (The asset management company — AMC) had received the No Objection Certificate for the Scheme of Arrangement for Amalgamation of ABAMCO Capital Fund, ABAMCO Stock Market Fund and ABAMCO Growth Fund into UTP - Growth Fund. “The registration of Trust Deed and other regulatory formalities are being completed”, they said and added: “The board reiterates its commitment to announce dividend immediately upon completion of the required regulatory process.”
Elaborating on performances of other funds under management, the CEO noted that the board of BSJS Balanced Fund had declared a cash dividend at Rs1.25 per certificate which was in addition to the 17.5 per cent dividend announced previously along with half year results. Earnings for the nine month ending March 31, 2006 of ABCF and BSBF had registered a growth of 246.12pc and 225.31pc respectively, from the same period last year. “The total distribution of these dividends constitutes an amount of Rs724.93m.” Najam Ali said.
In regard to the open end funds under management of ABAMCO, the company CEO pointed out that those had registered ‘an excellent performance during this period’. To back his claim, Najam Ali said that UTP - Aggressive Asset Allocation Fund (UTP - AAA) that was launched in June 2005 had reported Net Asset Value (NAV) per unit appreciation of as much as 106.79pc — outperforming KSE-100 by 52.62pc. “The exceptionally higher return offered to its unit holders has also led to a steep rise in size of UTP-AAA increasing by 4202pc from Rs130.57m to close at Rs5,617.14m.”, the CEO said.
Returns of other open end funds under its management UTP, UTP – Islamic Fund and UTP - Income Fund were stated to be leading in their respective categories. The corresponding NAV per unit appreciation of UTP and UTP-ISF for the nine months period stood at 46.77pc and 57.41pc. The NAV per unit of UTP-IF, had increased for the period by 8.47pc (annualized return of 11.30pc) which, Najam Ali claimed was “the highest amongst income and money market funds of the industry”.
The net profitability of UTP for the nine months period under review amounted to Rs1,172.49 million, which translated into income per unit of Rs3,180. Similarly, the net earnings of the other two funds viz. UTP-IF and UTP-ISF showed a growth of 242.41pc and 156.9pc respectively and were recorded at Rs217.51m (earnings per unit of Rs43.8) and Rs302.78m (earnings per unit of Rs329.74).
The chairman Munawar Alam Siddiqui told the press that ABAMCO had added an open end fund of funds (UTP-Fund of Fund) in October 2005 to cater the demand of its medium risk investors. The net earnings of the funds was recorded at Rs33.52m (earnings per unit of Rs10.29) and the rise in NAV per unit was 20.92pc for the six months period.
“Continuing with its objective to provide diversity of risk and return profile for its investors, the AMC is planning to introduce UTP-A30+ Fund shortly”, said the chairman and he added that the fund would be a valuable addition to the size of net assets under management of ABAMCO which stood at Rs27.203bn on March 31, 2006 reflected growth of 67pc in nine months since June 30, 2005.00
