KARACHI, Feb 13: The Board of Directors of BSJS Balanced Fund Limited (BBF) and Security Stock Fund Limited (SSF) have decided to merge the two companies, an announcement by BBF on Wednesday said.

Under the scheme of merger, assets and liabilities of SSF would be taken over by BBF in lieu of nine shares of BBF for every 10 shares of SSF to be issued to the shareholders of SSF. Following the merger — which would be the second merger of mutual funds in Pakistan — the paid-up capital of the merged entity would stand at Rs340 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) vide its letter dated Feb 11, had granted its approval to the proposed scheme as required in terms of clause (a) of Rule 8 of the Investment Companies & Investment Advisers Rules, 1971, subject to the compliance of the Companies Ordinance, 1984, approval of the High Court of Sindh and members of both the companies.

BBF is listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange on February 1996 with a paid-up capital of Rs150 million, as a closed-end mutual fund. ABAMCO Limited is the investment adviser of this fund. In June 2001, Confidence Mutual Fund, another closed-end mutual fund with a paid-up capital of Rs100 million was merged with BBF and the paid-up capital of BBF was raised to Rs250 million. That was the first merger of closed-end mutual funds in the country.

ABAMCO — the investment adviser to the BBF — also manges the open-ended mutual fund viz., Unit Trust of Pakistan, the announcement said.