The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) has assigned a 5-Star fund rating to Al Meezan Mutual Fund (Category: Islamic Fund), which reflects a superior performance relative to its peers. The rating is a composite measure of two factors namely a) returns, and b) risk associated with the returns measured by Sharpe Ratio.

About the fund: AMMF, a closed-end fund, was incorporated in August 1995 as a public limited company and is listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange. Al Meezan Investment Management Limited is acting as the company’s ‘investment advisor’ and CDC Limited as its ‘custodian’. The primary objective of AMMF is to provide the maximum total return to the certificate holders from investment in shariah compliant investments for the given level of risk.

The Fund, according to its Memorandum and Articles of Association, is allowed to invest in any type of equity and debt securities. However, the investment advisor while selecting investments strictly follows Islamic Shariah principles, as approved by the Shariah advisor (Meezan Bank Limited) for other Islamic funds being managed by AMIM.

About the Asset Manager: Incorporated in February 1995, Al Meezan Investment Management Limited (AMIM) is a subsidiary (65% shareholding) of Meezan Bank Limited (MBL), the first scheduled Islamic commercial bank in the country.

The Chief Executive of AMIM, Mr. Mohammad Shoaib, is a CFA Charter holder and also has Masters degree in Business Administration with over 16 years of experience in the capital markets. The Head of Investments is an MBA with extensive experience of more than 10 years in the financial sector of the country.

The company is catering to different investment objectives of a diverse client base. Currently, the company is managing three funds with assets under management of more than PKR 6.5bln as at end May-06. AMIM, in addition to AMMF, manages another closed-end fund namely Meezan Balanced Fund and an open-end fund namely Meezan Islamic Fund.