The performance of mutual funds was lauded and excellence awards were given to entities ranging from small cap funds to state-owned unit and also the companies belonging to private sector, with Mutual Fund Association assuring more awareness among small investors. The "Performance Excellence Awards 2004" ceremony was organised by the Mutual Fund Association of Pakistan (Mufap) at the Prime Minister's Secretariat Auditorium on Tuesday to acknowledge the performance of the open-end and closed-end mutual funds for the financial year 2004.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was the chief guest on the occasion. Other prominent guests who attended the ceremony included Omar Ayub Khan, Minister of State for Finance, Tariq Hassan, Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Senior government officials, heads of banks, financial institutions and dignitaries of Mutual Funds industry.
Mufap Vice Chairman Tariq Iqbal welcomed the chief guest and all others who attended the ceremony. He briefly presented the performance of the industry, particularly during the last three years and the role of Mufap as a self-regulatory body.
He elaborated the programmes being carried out by Mufap, particularly its awareness programme, for small investors in the form of talk shows etc, on the electronic media. He also enumerated the advantages of investing through mutual funds, which had the requisite expertise for making prudent investment decisions.
It was in fact a memorable day for the fund managers of the mutual fund industry, especially for Nasim Beg, Chief Executive, Arif Habib Investments, who received two awards for being the fund manager for two of its open-end mutual funds, Pakistan Stock Market Fund (PSM) and Pakistan Income Fund (PIF).
The distinction achieved by Arif Habib Investments in just a brief period of three years of operations isremarkable, considering that even the best of asset management companies aspire to achieve this after being in business for many years.
Tariq Iqbal Khan, Chairman and Managing Director, National Investment Trust (NIT) received the award for "Continued Performance Excellence" and Muhammad Ali Khoja, Chairman, Picic Asset Management, received the award for being the fund manager of Picic Growth Fund in the category of Closed-end Fund-Large Cap.
The award for Closed-end Fund - Small Cap went to Safeway Mutual Funds Limited and Mahmood Ahmed received the award as group chairman of the funds investment adviser, Safeway Fund Limited.
The prime minister praised the role being played by the SECP as a regulator, particularly in implementation of capital market reforms. He also mentioned the contribution of SECP and State Bank of Pakistan in resolving the recent problems of the stock exchanges.
He hoped that efforts would be made by the fund managers to attract more and more investment in the mutual funds, which still had a long way to go and cover the entire spectrum of the society.
He also emphasised upon the need to hire more professionals not only to attract investment, but also to manage the funds in a most efficient manner.
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