KARACHI, July 7: JS ABAMCO Limited, formerly ABAMCO Limited, on Saturday announced dividend payout totalling Rs2.103 billion for eight of its open-end funds for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.

The board in its meeting also approved the following stock dividends: Rs2,010.70 per unit for Unit Trust of Pakistan (27.50pc on the opening NAV of Rs7,311.62); Rs53.30 per unit for UTP-Income Fund (10.50pc on the opening NAV of Rs507.60); and Rs148.63 per unit for UTP-Islamic Fund (25pc on the opening NAV of Rs594.53).It approved Rs13.36 per unit for UTP-Aggressive Asset Allocation Fund (24.5pc on the opening NAV of Rs54.55); Rs7.55 per unit for UTP-Fund of Funds (15pc on the opening NAV of Rs50.32); Rs4.50 per unit for UTP-CPF (4.50pc on the opening NAV of Rs100); and Rs0.20 per unit for UTP-CPF II (0.20pc on the opening NAV of Rs100).

The board also approved cash dividend of Rs5 per unit for UTP – A30+ Fund. This was in addition to interim cash dividend of Rs7.50 per unit already paid in February 2007. All of that makes total dividend of Rs12.50 per unit paid by UTP-A30+ Fund, which translates into 25pc of the opening NAV.

A press release by JS ABAMCO stated that it has an asset manager rating of ‘AM2+’, “which is the highest rating ever received by any asset manager in Pakistan. Moreover, PACRA has assigned 5-star ratings for superior performance to all eligible open end funds; eligibility for ratings includes one full year of operations”.

Individually, the funds performance was as follows: UTP-A30+ fund posted total return of 37.95pc during the year outperforming the KSE-100 which posted a return of 37.87pc.

UTP–ISF posted a return of 22.29pc for the year, outperforming Dow Jones JS Pakistan Islamic Index by 5.13pc which returned 17.16pc over the same period. UTP provided a return of 28.28pc while UTP–AAA posted a return of 27.08pc for the year.

UTP–IF provided a dividend of 10.50pc on the opening NAV of Rs507.60 while the average six month KIBOR for the year was 10.36pc.

The company stated that JS ABAMCO launched a series of open ended capital protected funds during the year under review, for the first time in Pakistan. Two of those funds had been launched successfully while the third fund of the series was expected to be available for subscription soon.

The company also launched JS Pension Savings Fund recently in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited and EFU Life Assurance Limited to bring a one stop retirement solution which takes care of an individual’s entire retirement needs through a single product.