KARACHI, Feb 18: ABAMCO Limited announced a staggering sum of Rs1.02 billion in cash dividends for certificate holders in its closed-end mutual funds. "This is the highest dividend pay out by any private sector mutual funds in Pakistan," declared the ABAMCO chairman, Air Cdr.(Rtd) Munawar Siddiqui at a press briefing on Friday.

The chairman was flanked by Najam Ali, CEO of ABAMCO; Ali Raza Siddiqui, the newly inducted executive director of the company and Nadia Siddiqui, JS Group head corporate communications.

Initiating a fresh new trend, ABAMCO held the press briefing within minutes of declaration of results for the period ended December 31, 2004, at the stock exchange. This enabled a more thorough understanding of financial figures.

Najam Ali, the ABAMCO chief executive told the press that certificate holders whose names appear on the books of the respective funds as on March 30, 2005, would be eligible for this pay out.

He observed that the weighted average yield based on the prices as of yesterday (Thursday) for the period July 1, 2004 till March 30, 2005, thus equated to 15.93 per cent for an investor in ABAMCO managed closed-end funds.

"This yield is superior to the return currently available on all types of fixed income instruments, and is indeed even higher than most equity investments," the company CEO said.

He also pointed out that as of yesterday (Thursday), ABAMCO Limited held over Rs17 billion in assets under its management, securing for itself the position of being the largest asset management company in private sector in Pakistan.

During the reporting period (July-Dec '04), net assets had appreciated by 11.52 per cent which depicted confidence of the investors in ABAMCO's funds and the company's ability to provide them with superior returns, Najam Ali said.

In addition to the closed end funds, the company also unveiled figures for the open end funds, which had secured Rs125 million in earnings, excluding an unrealized income that worked out to Rs296.05 per unit for its balanced fund-Unit Trust of Pakistan (UTP).

The net earnings exclusive of the unrealized gains for the other two funds, viz UTP-ISF and UTP-IF were recorded at Rs31.03 million, (translating into earnings per unit of Rs18.72) and Rs43.22 million (representing earning per unit of Rs 15.21), respectively.

The highlight of the results announcement on Friday, of the closed-end funds, was the declaration of cash pay out in the huge sum of Rs411.93 million at 12.5 per cent per certificate from income earned to date by ABAMCO Composite Fund (ACOF).

This Fund had started operations just ten months ago and the pay out represented annualised current yield at 18.64 per cent. IFC was one of the subscribers to the Fund.

In respect of other four closed end funds, the ABAMCO CEO said that BSJS Balanced Fund (BBF), the first mutual fund launched by ABAMCO had paid an interim dividend of Rs148.22 million at the rate of 12.5 per cent per certificate. This pay out delivered an annualized current yield of 15.08 per cent for the period July 1, 2004 to March 30, 2005.

Similarly, the asset management company declared payouts on its three equity funds: On Abamco Growth Fund - AGF (formerly 4th ICP) an amount of Rs71.66 million at the rate of 26 per cent per certificate, translating into an annualised yield of 12.39 per cent; on Abamco Stock Market Fund Rs 131.25 million at 15 per cent, that worked out to a yield of 15.08 per cent and ASMF & Abamco Capital Fund - ACF Rs 253.68 million at 12.5 per cent, which implied a yield of 14.55 per cent.

Najam Ali explained that the yields had been calculated on Net Asset Value (NAV), which if worked out on market price would turn out to be even higher.