Al Meezan Investment Management Limited (Al Meezan Investments) is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors in its meeting held on February 23, 2009, has approved second interim payout of Rs. 0.75 per unit i.e., 1.5% on par value Rs. 50/- for Meezan Islamic Income Fund (MIIF). The payout is in the form of Bonus Units to the Growth Unit holders and Cash Dividend to the Income Unit holders.
A Growth Unit holder having 100 units of MIIF as at February 21, 2009 will get 1.4872 additional units at the ex-div. NAV of Rs. 50.43, while an Income Unit holder will get Cash Dividend of Rs. 0.75 per unit.
MIIF is the first and largest Shariah compliant open end income fund in Pakistan. It has been assigned Fund Stability Rating A(f) by JCR-VIS. MIIF aims at providing a consistent and Halal income stream with main focus on long term capital preservation.
According to the press release a sizable portion of current fund portfolio is invested in cash, cash equivalents and term deposits with Islamic banks (around 61%). The rest of the investment portfolio (around 39% of net assets) comprises of good quality Islamic income instruments (Sukuk). This compares very favorably with other Islamic Income Funds where Sukuk portfolio is around 70% to 85% of net assets. Due to better liquidity position of MIIF compared to other Islamic income funds; it has been able to meet liquidity requirements of its unit holders efficiently which made the fund outperform its peers by substantial margins. MIIF has a track record of paying consistent dividend. Since its inception it has paid cumulative return of 11.18% to its investors. The current fund size of MIIF is over Rs. 4.6 billion. For the month of December 2008, the annualized return of MIIF was 15.89% which was the highest among all Islamic income and money market funds.
The investors have very positively welcomed the recent introduction of Meezan Mahana Kharch Account, a monthly profit payment plan based on MIIF. As of the date of this press release, there are around 300 investors who have invested in this plan and are benefiting of automatic monthly profit payments and takaful coverage including natural and accidental death, permanent total disability and medical coverage in case of accident.
Al Meezan Investments is the only full-fledged Shariah compliant asset management company in Pakistan, with AM2- Management Quality Rating. Due to its prudent fund management, Al Meezan Investments has not only been able to retain its existing investors despite massive redemption pressure prevailing in the industry but also managed to increase the investor base. This success is reflective of the confidence and trust of both individual and institutional investors.