Vilhena Funds SICAV held its annual general meeting recently at the Hilton. The directors presented the shareholders with the annual report and financial statements of the company for the year ended 30 June. The Net Asset value of the Vilhena Funds SICAV as at the year then ended stood over Lm86 (EUR200) million.

Following the annual general meeting, two presentations were delivered to the shareholders. 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, 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 12 months to 30 June 2007, despite a sharp sell-off between February and March 2007.”

Among 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 EUR1 to EUR1.7251.