Unit holders of UBA Bond Fund have approved the 15 kobo dividend proposed by the fund manager for the period ended March 31, 2009.
This represents an increase by 50 per cent over the 10 kobo paid to shareholders in the similar period of 2008.
The shareholders of the fund, who spoke during the 2nd Annual General Meeting of the company, commended the fund managers on the performance of the bond fund, and urged them to bring more returns in the coming year.
The fund had recorded a gross income of per unit of 33 kobo in the year under consideration. This represented an increase by 32 per cent compared to 25 kobo per unit recorded the preceding year.
It, however, returned a net increase of N323m in the period under consideration, compared to N375m in the previous year.
The decline, according to the Fund Manager, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri, was attributed to an 18-month financial year in 2008, as against a 12 month financial year in 2009.
He noted that as at March 31, 2009, 73 per cent of the fund‘s assets were invested in bonds, while the balance of two per cent was invested in money market securities.
A unit holder, Mr. Lazarus Onwuka, called on the managers to be more proactive when choosing areas where investors‘ funds would be invested.
According to him, ”We are happy with the performance of the fund, especially the Bond Fund, and we hope that other funds like the UBA Equity Fund, the Balanced Fund, and the Money Market Fund will perform better in the future.”
Jalo-Waziri said that in the future, the mutual funds, which are managed by UBA Asset Management Limited, was going to give higher returns to investors, adding that some of them did not perform so well in the year under consideration, because of the significant drop in the stock market.
He said, ”However, since we always encourage our investors to have a long-term perspective, and futuristic view when making their investments by the nature of the fund, we assure them that they will begin to get higher returns in the not too distant future.”
(Source: Punch)
