UBL Fund Managers and United Bank Limited on Thursday announced the launch of their first joint investment product, the UBL Capital Protected Fund-I (UCPF-I) worth Rs 1.5 billion.
Addressing a press conference at UBL head office, president and chief executive officer of UBL Atif R Bokhari said that the applications for the first Initial Public Offering of the new fund would be available at all UBL bank branches across the country during March 1-15, 2008.
He said that this fund has been launched keeping in view the needs of discerning investors who are looking for a safe and fixed term investment avenues, coupled with attractive stream of tax-free returns.
Atif said that UBL is one of the largest and most high profile banks in Pakistan. The bank has a large presence at home and in over nine countries around the world through a growing network of nearly 1,050 branches and over 14,500 employees.
He said that for the first time a bank and its asset management company are jointly launching a capital protected product in Pakistan and in future the bank would also announce more jointly managed funds.
"The investment objective of the fund is to provide investors with 100 percent protection of their capital amount while also offering returns linked to the Pakistani stock market," he added. He said that during the 15-day IPO of the fund, investors would be able to purchase units in the fund from UBL branches and UBL Fund Managers Investment centers across the country.
On the occasion chief executive officer UBL Fund Managers Mir Muhammad Ali said with the new fund, investment would be made in the stock exchanges and its profit would be based on the performance of the stock market.
He said that UBL Fund Managers is currently managing assets of over Rs 30 billion in five open-end funds and is ranked one the leading and most experienced investment managers in the country. He said that this is a three-year fund and in case of bad performance of the stock exchange, the principle amount of the customer will be protected, besides UBL will also repurchase the fund.
Najeeb Agrawalla, Group Head Sales, Marketing and Product Management, said that the launch of UCPF-I represents a critical benchmark for the bank in the light of its recently launched ''''Retail Banking Concept'''' through which the bank envisions using the strength of its 1000 plus branches.