During the 17th Annual General Meeting of the Vilhena Funds SICAV, the Directors presented the Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements of the Company as at30 April 2014. The net asset value of the Company as at the year-endwas registered at €460.32 million.
Apart from the change in the year end to 30 April 2014,during the reporting period five sub-funds were migrated from La Valette Funds SICAV plc to the Company.The UCITS directive, considered as the 'state-of-the-art' regulation of investment funds worldwide, provides shareholders with higher standards of investor protection. As at 30 April 2014, the Company had eleven sub-funds, categorised under five different categories of investment solutions;Liquidity, Income, Income and Growth, Growth and Absolute Return. In February 2014, the Company launched the Vilhena Global Balanced Multi-Manager Fund, an additional new fundunder the Income and Growth category.This fund offers investors a diversified and well-balanced global market exposure, across a broad range of collective investment schemes, investing mainly in cash, bonds and equities.
Following the AGM, three presentations were delivered to the shareholders present. Mr David Pace Ross,Manager-Capital Markets & Institutions Unit atBank of Valletta plc, gave an overview of the Maltese Capital Market, highlighting the positive performance over the period of the domestic corporate and government bonds, as a result of the current low interestrate scenario. Mr David Pace Ross concluded by stating that 'the current environment for corporate bonds continues to be supportive and the Maltese public have and will continue to show interest in the fixed income market.'
Mr. Malcolm Abdilla Castillo,Manager-Capital Markets & Institutions Unit at Bank of Valletta plc, analysed the investment performance of the Vilhena funds investing in the domestic market. He referred to the performance of the domestic bond funds that registered a positive return on the back of increased demand by local investors. Mr Abdilla Castillo also reviewed the performance of the two domestic equity funds, the Vilhena Maltese Opportunities Fund and the Vilhena Equity Focus Fund, which also recorded a modest positive performance during the reporting period, notwithstanding the increased volatility and lower market activity, which led to the decline in the MSE Index towards the end of the financial year.
Mr Abdilla Castillo also provided an analysis of the Vilhena Mediterranean Rim Fund which registered a marginal increase in the share price during the last months, attributed mainly to the stabilisation of the European economy and improved political instability. He concluded the presentation by stating that 'local funds provide investors with anopportunity to participate in the domestic equity as well as the sovereign and corporate bond markets.
In his presentation, Mr Mark Vella,Head-Business Development at Valletta Fund Management provided an overview of the international markets and spoke about the current global economic activity, which is characterized by an interest rate divergence between the US Federal Reserve Bank and the European Central Bank.MrVella also referred to the advantages of investing through monthly investment plans, considered as 'a sea of opportunity' for investors witha long-term horizon.
Mr Vella stressed on'the benefit of cost averaging when investing in the capital markets providing investors with the ability to invest in the capital markets from as little as Euro 50 per month. '
During the second part of the presentation, Mr Vella focused on the performance of the Vilhena funds investing in the international markets. Mr Vella concluded the presentation by stating that'Markets are always unpredictable - we are today faced with a number of unrelenting regulatory challenges that are not just recent history but the new normal.'