National Equity Fund of NAMAL Pays Dividends for a Record 20 Years

03rd April 2013, www.island.lk

National Asset Management Limited (NAMAL), maintaining its continuous dividend payments, announced that the company’s flagship fund the National Equity Fund (NEF) paid a dividend of one rupee per unit to the Unit holders for the year ended 31st March 2013. NEF is the only Equity Fund to have made continuous dividend payments since its inception including the exigent times in the industry, NAMAL said in a statement.

Avancka Herat, Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of NAMAL, stated that the fund outperformed the CSE All Share Price Index (ASPI) on an YTD, 12 months & 24 months by 5.51%, 9.44% and 17.99% and attributed this superior performance to timely asset allocation.
He further stated that the NEF which is classified as a Balanced Fund, was the best performing fund in its respective segment. The fund also achieved a CAGR of 14.71% on a dividend re investment basis since inception in December1991 to 28th February 2013. NEF was launched in 1991 and currently has Rs. 1.7 billion assets under management with annual dividend payouts being made at a historical average of Rs. 1.22 during the 20 year period.

"NAMAL is Sri Lanka’s first unit trust management company, having commenced operations in 1991, with a 20-year track record of successfully investing in the Sri Lankan equity and debt markets. NAMAL currently operates eight unit trusts including the flagship National Equity Fund and the only listed unit trust. Principal shareholders of NAMAL are Union Bank of Colombo PLC and DFCC Bank PLC."

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Sri Lanka Acuity Partners & Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust to Set up a Firm to Run Mutual Funds

22nd May 2011, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's Acuity Partners, an investment bank, and Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust is setting up a joint venture firm to run mutual funds (unit trusts), targeting domestic and international markets.

The new firm called Guardian Acuity Asset Management, will launch funds which will invest in equity and fixed income, Guardian said in a statement.

Acuity Partners is a joint venture between Sri Lanka's Hatton National Bank and DFCC Bank. Ceylon ¬Guardian Investment Trust is part of the listed Carsons Cumberbatch group which manages 33 billion rupees including a Sri Lanka country fund based overseas.

"The post war economic development in Sri Lanka will see increasing per capita income and savings rates amongst the people which would translate to a demand of a wide variety of savings and investment options…," the firm said in a statement.

The firm said it wanted to structure investment products to match different risk and return profiles of savers.

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Sri Lanka Unit Trusts Attract Rs1.5bn New Funds in First Ten Months of 2010

26th November 2010, www.news.lk, By Charumini De Silva

During the first ten months of this year the Unit Trust industry has attracted new funds over Rs 1.5 billion. The total funds under management are Rs 17 billion as at October 31 this year.

Speaking to Daily News Business Unit Trust Association of Sri Lanka (UTASL) Treasurer P Asokan said the industry was also able to collect around Rs 300 million every month during the past three months.

The growth funds recorded an average performance of 90 percent to 100 percent on year-to-date while the balance funds recorded 70 percent to 95 percent growth year-to-date.

The main advantage of this year’s budget to the Unit Trust industry was that the Government permitted direct foreign investments to any Unit Trust fund. Unit management companies will take up this opportunity and market their products overseas.

He said individual investors would be in a position to reap the benefits of the stock market through Unit Trusts. The Unit Trusts are professionally managed by fund managers and they have well diversified investment portfolios which provides a significant growth in the medium to long-term.

“Prior to the budget foreign investors were permitted to invest in growth funds provided they add a maximum investment restriction of 20 percent in Government securities. With the budget 2011 foreign investors can now invest in income funds, balance funds, growth funds and also index funds,” Asokan said.

He said with the interest rates expected to remain low, Unit Trusts provide an alternative investment for the investor to reap benefits of the returns available in the capital market.

“Therefore, we believe public will realize that they are dependent on interest rate would be futile.

It is good timing that the public should look for alternative investments to achieve a real rate of return. Thus, Unit Trusts could mobilize and attract these investors into the funds, which are managed by the professional fund managers,” he said.

“With Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) performing well the Unit Trust industry has noticed that new investments are increasing especially in balance funds and growth funds. However with the slow interest rate regime there is a slow growth in the income funds,” Asokan said.

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