July 9, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 12, 1427

KARACHI, July 8: JS ABAMCO (formerly ABAMCO Limited) on Saturday announced dividend payouts for five of the company’s open-end funds for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006.

The funds for which payouts were announced included UTP-Aggressive Asset Allocation Fund; Unit Trust of Pakistan; UTP-Islamic Fund; UTP Fund of Funds and UTP-A30+. The company had notified earlier that the results of the last of its open-end fund, the UTP-income fund would be announced on July 15.

A press release issued by the company on Saturday, following the meeting of the board of directors that approved accounts for the year ended June 30, 2006, announced that stock dividend at Rs32.5 per unit would be paid to unit holders in UTP Aggressive Asset Allocation Fund (65pc on the face value of Rs50 per unit); Rs2,000 per unit for Unit Trust of Pakistan (40pc on the face value of Rs5,000 per unit); Rs187.50 per unit for UTP-Islamic Fund (37.5pc on the face value of Rs500 per unit); Rs4.0 per unit for UTP-Fund of Funds (8pc on the face value of Rs50 per unit) and Rs0.25 per unit for UTP-A30+ (0.5pc on the face value of Rs50 per unit).

Najam Ali, CEO of JS ABAMCO observed: “We are proud to inform that our open-end funds have done remarkably well during fiscal year 2005-06, in spite of considerable market volatility”. He pointed out that two of the company’s open-end funds had clearly outperformed the KSE-100 index in an extremely volatility market. The benchmark KSE-100 index had risen by 34.08 per cent between June 30, 2005 and June 30, 2006. During this period, the Net Asset Value (NAV) of UTP Aggressive Asset Allocation Fund showed growth of 72.92pc, from Rs50.34 to Rs87.05. The growth represented more than twice the KSE-100 index gains. UTP-Islamic Fund also showed gains of 34.46pc in NAV, from Rs581.60 to Rs782.03, which was ahead of the KSE-100 index rise.

“And while a balanced fund is usually supposed to appreciate less than an all stock fund in the bull market, UTP recorded a fabulous gain of 32.40pc, which is at par with the return on an equity fund with much lower risk profile as a balanced fund,” Najam Ali said and added that the UTP had been rated ‘5’ star by Pacra which signified consistent and superior performance.

The NAV of UTP-Fund of Funds, which was launched on October 31, 2005, gained 8.64pc with the NAV rising from Rs50 to Rs54.32 during the course of the year. UTP-A30, based on the company’s A30 index was launched on May 29, 2006 and it appreciated by 0.5pc till year-end. The company had created its private free float based ABAMCO-30 Index, which posted gain of 35.20pc for FY06, representing 112bps above KSE-100 return.

The CEO of JS ABAMCO informed that the company has an asset manager rating of ‘AM2’, which denotes company’s very strong capacity to manage risks inherent in asset management. Najam said: “Our consistent track record serves as a testimony to our commitment to provide maximum value to the unit holders in terms of investment performance and services” and added that the company was proud to be part of the Jahangir Siddiqui Group and JS ABAMCO would continue to strive to be the best asset management company in Pakistan.

In answer to a query, Najam stressed upon the advantages of investment in the market through the route of Mutual Funds. “The fabulous returns posted by our company prove that in times of volatility, the best bet for investors who do not have the time, knowledge and expertise to handle portfolio, is to enter equity market through mutual funds, which offer higher returns and takes better care of investors’ money”.