Vilhena Funds SICAV plc recently held its annual general meeting at the Hilton Malta, in St Julian’s. The Directors presented to the shareholders present the Annual Report and Financial Statements of the Company for the year ended 30 June 2007. The net asset value of the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc as at the year then ended stood over Lm86 (e200) million.
In his opening address, Peter Perotti, general manager of Valletta Fund Management Limited said “Since its launch in October 1997, the Vilhena Funds SICAV. has registered significant growth in investments, with the Scheme now offering investors a range of eight domestic and international investment solutions denominated in all the major currencies and investing across the main asset classes. A particular feature of this Scheme is the Absolute Return Concept. An absolute return fund seeks to achieve positive returns in all market environments by employing a skill based approach rather than being driven by market strategies. Absolute return funds have greater investment flexibility and offer strong diversification benefits when compared to traditional investments, aiming for stable performance.”
He added that “a number of the Vilhena Funds also adopt a Multi-Manager concept. Through the Multi-Manager approach, investors gain access to a careful selection of investment funds managed by several experts in the field.” Mr Perotti concluded by saying that earlier that year, the Vilhena Funds SICAV has attained UCITS certification. “This is another milestone for Valletta Fund Management as we are the first Company licensed as a “Maltese Management Company” pursuant to the Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities and Management Companies Regulations. The UCITS directive was introduced to allow funds authorised by the Regulator in any EU member state to be available and sold to customers elsewhere in the EU without requiring further authorisation, thereby attaining the goal of setting a single market for financial services in Europe.”
Following the AGM, two presentations were delivered to the shareholders present. During the first presentation, Aldo Scardino and David Pace Ross from Bank of Valletta gave a review as well as an outlook of the local market and spoke about the potential of investing in the Vilhena range of Malta funds. Mr Scardino spoke on the convergence of the Maltese lira and euro benchmark yield curves as the euro adoption draws closer. He also spoke about the good results registered by a number of companies quoted on the Malta Stock Exchange and affirmed that equity valuation appear sensible on fundamentals.
Later on, Mr Mark Vella, Head of Marketing at Valletta Fund Management Limited spoke about the performance of the international markets as well as the asset allocation and performance of the international range of Vilhena Funds. Mr Vella said “The major global equity markets reported strong gains over the twelve months to 30 June 2007, despite a sharp sell-off between February and March 2007.” Amongst the performance figures highlighted by Mr Vella during his presentation, most notable was the strong performance of the Vilhena European Multi-Manager Fund which for the period from launch on the 22 June 2004 to 30 June 2007, the quoted share prices increased by 72.51 per cent from a fixed launch offer price of e1 to e1.7251.