Vilhena Funds SICAV recently held its 15th annual general meeting at the Westin Dragonara Hotel. Licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority as a Collective Investment Scheme and qualifying as an ‘Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities’, Vilhena Funds SICAV offers nine funds that invest across most asset classes in both the local and international markets.
The company held €181 million in assets under management as at 30 June 2011.
After the meeting, during which all resolutions presented to the shareholders were unanimously approved, the shareholders followed a number of presentations.
In the first presentation, David Pace Ross from Bank of Valletta explained that during the period under review, the Malta Stock Exchange Index traded flat, losing just 0.1 per cent of its value.
The MSE Index peaked at around end January 2011 when growth followed the positive earnings on the market outlook from financial companies. However, the optimistic sentiment changed in February 2011 with the revolution in North Africa and the prolonged Libya crisis. Mr Pace Ross also mentioned the impact of the European debt crisis, which moved from Greece and Ireland to Portugal, Spain and Italy. On the other hand, he remained positive on the performance of local companies, as the MSE Index has registered an increase in turnover and operating income over the last years and a stable Net Dividend distribution over the same period.
Mark Vella from Valletta Fund Management Limited gave an overview of the international markets and a detailed review of the portfolios and performance of the Vilhena funds. Mr Vella then highlighted the benefits of a Collective Investment Scheme and the objective of each fund. Analysing local bond funds, Mr Vella mentioned that the local bond market experienced an increase in volatility during the period under review, but the benefit of diversification especially between bond duration within the portfolios acts as a cushion to dampen market volatility. He went on to explain how the Vilhena Global Themed Fund seeks high quality in well-positioned and highly liquid stocks with visible growth. “The theme based fund concentrates on stock picking of companies with healthy and strong balance sheets,” Mr Vella said.
Shantanu Tandon, Fund Manager, Multi Asset Group – Insight Investments (Global) Limited, gave shareholders an overview of the current market scenario and its implications on the Absolute-Return Funds and Mutli-Manager Funds which are sub-funds of the Vilhena Funds SICAV.
He explained how active managers can access companies well placed to benefit in a de-levered world and that alternative investments can offer attractive returns and provide diversification in a macro environment where the picture is unclear and volatility is expected to stay high.