Business News of Thursday, 23 July 2015

Source: Daily Guide

Databank’s Mfund assets hit Gh¢133m

Kojo Addae Mensah - Group Chief Executive of Databank Group Kojo Addae Mensah - Group Chief Executive of Databank Group

The Assets Under Management (AUM) of the Data Bank Money Market Fund (Mfund) increased from GH¢105 million in 2013 to GH¢133.11 million at the end of 2014, representing 26 percent growth.

This performance outstrips last year’s annualized yield of 22.11 percent.

It is the Fund’s second highest performance since its inception 11 years ago.

The growth, according to the Fund Manager, Edna Ahunu, was achieved on the back of the strong performance and the growth in shareholders and inflows.

The fund, which is Ghana’s biggest first money market mutual fund, outperformed its benchmarks, the 91-day Treasury bill and the savings rate by 2.34 percent and 16.31 percent respectively.

Edna Ahunu, the Fund Manager, said in the 2014 annual report that the Mfund aims at growing the investor’s money to keep pace with and even outpace inflation, thereby delivering a positive real return to clients.

She reassured investors that Databank remains committed to creating wealth for its clients while exercising care and diligence in the investment process, adding “Our clients can rest easy, knowing that their investments are in safe hand.”

The Epack investment fund came out as the best performing equity mutual of the year 2014, recording a performance of 39.58 percent.

The Fund’s AUM increased from GH¢95.6 million in 2013 to GH¢132 million at the end of 2014.

In 2014, the Fund invested in 10 stock markets across Africa, including Malawi, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, BRVM, Tanzania and Uganda.

Nii Ampa-Sowa, Fund Manager, encouraged clients to continue to invest by sowing not just in times of plenty, but in times of few.

On the future outlook of the Fund, he said the Fund would strive to achieve its medium-term objective of existing relatively illiquid markets, while simultaneously re-balancing the portfolio in favour of sectors that are required, have reasonable sound fundamentals and possess good growth prospects.