Atlas Fund of Funds (AFF), Pakistan's first fund of funds, passes on the benefits of price discounts to its investors was launched with a capital of Rs 500 million in the month of December 2004 and was over subscribed by 25 percent, says a press release here on Monday. The total applications received in the IPO amounted to Rs 250.30 million. This was reported by Atlas Asset Management Ltd (AAML), the investment adviser of AFF, head of marketing Nayab Qazi.
The applications for categories of 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 Share Certificates were fully allocated. Applications in excess of 2500 Share Certificates were allocated on pro-rata basis, the release added.
AFF is provisionally listed at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). The shares of the fund will be traded on the ready board, once the final approval has been granted by the KSE.
The capital of the fund will primarily be invested in shares of closed-end mutual funds listed on the stock exchanges in Pakistan. The objective of the fund will be to take advantage of the discount at which closed-end funds are traded on the stock exchange and post a higher return to the shareholders. It added.
The release said that Atlas Income Fund (AIF); the Company's first open-ended mutual fund was launched in March 2004 with a seed capital of Rs 300 million.
The fund size has crossed Rs 640 million in a short span of only 9 months. AIF was able to pay a cash dividend of Rs 18.75/unit within a period of three months ended June 30, 2004.
This works out to a return of 6.2 percent on an annualised basis. Its offer price has reached Rs 527.89 and repurchase has reached Rs 517.54 as of January 17, 2005.
It said the performance of the Fund translates into an annualised return of 6.7 percent based on the NAV. It is known to be one of the best performing Funds in the market in the income fund category.-PR