Two mutual funds managed by the First Banc Financial Services made substantial gains in the year 2015, bringing high revenues to shareholders who invested in the funds.
First Fund which is a short term investment and the Heritage
Fund, a long term investment, made 38.76% and 4.23% return on investment respectively.
The First Fund recorded a net interest income of more than GHC9.7 million as against GHC 4.7 million it earned in 2014 while the Heritage Fund made GHC 97,437 which is above the GHC 68,667 it made last year.
Meanwhile, the total value of assets under the management of the First Fund reached GHC 44.75 million, rising by 94 per cent from 2014’s GHC22.8 million and the heritage fund also grew at a rate of 6.32% in 2015 hitting more than GHC 1.5 million last year.
“Increase in net income is attributed to higher volume of business and higher market rates during the year,” the Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Director of the First Banc Financial Services, Samuel Annie Aseidu said at an Annual General Meeting.
In addition, “the high performance of the funds is due to the risk mitigation measures and the diversified portfolios of the funds,” he said.
He said the managers of the funds were committed to ensuring that contributors would receive high earnings on their investment.
The First Fund alone has a shareholder base of almost 10,000 investors.
“We are hoping for improvement in the investment portfolio this year as we hope to attract bulk investors to the fund,” he maintained.
At the annual general meeting, shareholders passed a resolution to permit management of the First Fund to waive charges for investors that are willing to pay more than GHC 500,000 into the fund for a period of a year.
This, according, to Mr Aseidu will position the fund to attract almost GHC40miilion worth of investment from the pension fund.
“We are preparing to open an office in Tema to provide services to residents of the city and neighboring towns such as Ningo and Pampram, however, feasibility studies to possibly enter the Takoradi and Kumasi markets are also under way,” he said.
Nii Okai Tetteh | Onua FM | 3news.com
