LAHORE, Aug 16: The Privatization Commission is evaluating and examining the expressions of interest (EoIs) received for the disinvestment of National Investment Trust (NIT).

This was stated by NIT chairman Tariq Iqbal Khan while talking to reporters at a press conference here on Saturday. He added the NIT administration had everything it was required to prepare the open-ended mutual fund for privatization. “That’s about it,” said the chairman in reply to a question.

Earlier, he said NIT had again outperformed the KSE 100-share index even during the current fiscal year since July 9. “NIT has appreciated by 24.6 per cent during the period compared to 21.7 per cent rise in the KSE index,” he said.

Mr Khan said NIT not only outperformed the benchmark KSE index previous year, but also proved itself to be the “best performing” mutual funds in the country.

Commenting on the unparalleled rise in the equity market, with the KSE index crossing record level of 4,322 points on Aug 8, he said the “fund had just completed a very good year in terms of operating performance and the dividend of Rs1.75 per unit paid by it for FY2003 was the highest in eight years”. Capital gains realized by it in FY2003 stood at Rs972 million — 80 per cent higher than the year before. “The dividend income received by NIT appreciated by 25 per cent to Rs2.368 billion last year.” NIT had paid Rs1.20 per unit as dividend in FY2002.

The market value of the investment portfolio of the fund as on June 30 stood at Rs34.007 billion, increasing by 30.6 per cent to Rs44.428bn on Aug 8.

NIT, the chairman said, had undertaken an “extensive portfolio restructuring exercise” in 2001-02 to align investment objectives of the portfolio with those of its unit holders.

“This exercise, which is a continuous process, has resulted in enhanced dividend income, which has risen from Rs1.684 billion in FY01 to Rs1.890 billion in FY02 and Rs2.368 billion in FY03, that is reflective of the success of the portfolio restructuring.”

“It may be noted that the cost of the investment portfolio has remained almost steady at about Rs21 billion, but the market value of the portfolio has increased to Rs44.5 billion as a consequence of restructuring,” the chairman claimed.