Re-launch of Sri Lanka Fund:

Individuals, corporates can invest

by Sapumali Galagoda

This is the first time the Sri Lanka Fund was opened for local, foreign individuals and corporates to invest in US Dollars, it was announced at the re-launch of the Fund last week in Colombo.

The Fund has a revenue of two million dollars infused by the promoters Ceylon Investment Trust PLC and Ceylon Investment PLC upto August 2010.

The fund has been structured to represent the growth sectors of the economy including banking, hotels and travel, retail and infrastructure related sectors.

The Sri Lanka Fund, the oldest country fund is promoted by the Carson Cumberbatch Group through its investment companies Ceylon Guardian Group (Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust PLC and Ceylon Investments PLC) the country's largest listed equity fund with assets under management of over US$ 300 Mn.

The total value of the Fund amounts to US$ 2.9 Mn as at November 30 with a net asset value per unit of US$ 1.03.

The Fund has over performed the benchmark all share index since re-launching in August with the net asset value per unit growing by 30 percent from US$ 0.79 to US$ 1.03 end November.

The All Share Index appreciation of 26 percent during the same period.

The Investment objective of the Fund is to provide its clients with medium to long term capital appreciation with periodic returns by employing pro-active investment strategies in the Sri Lankan equities market.

The fund is registered in the Cayman Islands as a restricted foreign scheme with monetary authority of Singapore.

The Fund outperformed the All Share Price Index during the quarter ended November 30 mainly due to its exposure to the banking,construction and leisure sectors.

Carson Cumberbatch consists of industries in Financial services, Beverage, Real Estate, Oil Palm Plantations, Airline Services and Leisure and Management Services.

The company is one of the top five on the Colombo Stock Exchange by market capitalisation.

Group companies account for more than 10 percent of the Colombo Stock Exchange's market capitalization.

Guardian Fund Management Ltd, manages Sri Lanka's largest listed investment trust with Rs. 35 billion/USD 333mn of funds under its management.

It is registered as an investment manager with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka since 2006 and registered as underwriters.

This company manages outsourced client funds of over Rs. 100 Mn/US$ 1 million

The Investment strategy of the Sri Lanka Fund focuses on medium to long-term opportunities. Bottom up selection based on four categories, i.e. sector exposure to high growth industries, quality of management, competitiveness of the business model, financial strength and valuations, investment in listed securities, no leverage while five percent of the NAV will be maintained in cash to capture new opportunities.