Trading session at NSE
By Goddy Egene
The Managing Director of Union Trustees Limited, Mrs. Olufunke Aiyepola, has assured unit holders of Union Trustees Mixed Fund that they should expect improved returns on their investments going forward.
Speaking at the 3rd Annual General Meeting held in Lagos, Aiyepola said that apart from efforts the fund managers were making to ensure higher returns, the fund would now attract patronage by Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs).
She noted that investor confidence in the market was gradually being restored, stating that Union Trustees Mixed is one of the funds returning investors were eying to invest in given the experience and pedigree of the fund managers and other parties involved in the fund.
The Union Trustees Mixed Fund is an open ended unit trust scheme, which commenced investment activities in April 2008, and provides unit holders access to investments in approved portfolio. The Fund is heavy on money market investments which account for over 50 per cent of the fund’s portfolio while remaining 50 per cent is held in equities, fixed income securities and real estate.
The fund recorded a net income of N111.5 million and declared a dividend of five kobo per share for the financial year ended April 30, 2011. The Net Asset Value (NAV) stood at N1.99 billion, down from N2.02 billion in 2010.
Aiyepola explained that the fund was affected by the withholding tax on investment income which jumped from N168, 750 in 2010 to N1.4 million in 2011.
She added that the 1.6 billion units of the fund’s shares were reduced to 1.5 billion due to redemption of some units during the year under review.
Also speaking , the Managing Director of UBA Trustees Limited, the Trustee to the Fund, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Sanni, who presided the AGM proposed the transfer of the fund’s management from Union Trustees Limited to CDL asset management, a subsidiary of Consolidated Discounts Limited (CDL), following earlier approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).