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The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited
Press Release

Date
09-Sep-22

Analyst
Wajeeha Asghar
wajeeha.asghar@pacra.com
+92-42-35869504
www.pacra.com

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This press release is being transmitted for the sole purpose of dissemination through print/electronic media. The press release may be used in full or in part without changing the meaning or context thereof with due credit to PACRA

PACRA Maintains Stability Rating of Lakson Income Fund

Rating Type Stability Rating
Current
(09-Sep-22 )
Previous
(09-Mar-22 )
Action Maintain Maintain
Long Term A+(f) A+(f)
Short Term - -
Outlook Stable Stable
Rating Watch - -

Lakson Income Fund (or the 'Fund') is a medium-risk profile fund. The assigned rating reflects the moderate strength of the Fund's credit and interest rate risk profile. The Fund had allocated ~27% of its net assets to banks, mainly AAA rated banks, ~33% in TFCs rated AA+ or higher whereas ~23.5% in PIBs. The Fund has shifted its allocation to TFCs and PIBs resultantly, the duration of the Fund increased to 75 days (Dec-21: 35days) and the WAM increased to 1,444 days at the end Jun-22 (Dec’21: 1,124 days). The unit holding pattern of the Fund was highly concentrated where ~78% were represented by top 10 investors.
Going forward, based on market expectations the Fund may increase its exposure in floating rate instruments and short tenor instruments. Material changes in the Fund's asset allocation strategy, impacting its credit quality and/or exposure to interest rate risk, would affect the rating.

About the Entity
Lakson Investments Limited, the investment management company of the Lakson Group, was incorporated on January 02, 2009, as an unlisted public company. It is licensed to undertake Asset Management, Investment Advisory and Private Fund Management services. Lakson Investments is the only AMC, which offers exposure to international markets through Lakson Asset Allocation Developed Markets Fund. The Company is also managing a private equity and venture capital fund along with mutual funds and SMA products. Mr. Babar Ali Lakhani, CEO of the company, over 19 years of investment and portfolio management experience in domestic and international equity and fixed income markets.
The company’s control vests in a six-member board, comprising three non-executives, one executive, and two independent directors. The Chairman of the Lakson Group, Mr. Iqbal Ali Lakhani, is the chairman of Lakson Investment’s board. The asset under management of the company stood at ~25bln in the end Jun-22

The primary function of PACRA is to evaluate the capacity and willingness of an entity to honor its obligations. Our ratings reflect an independent, professional and impartial assessment of the risks associated with a particular instrument or an entity. PACRA's comprehensive offerings include instrument and entity credit ratings, insurer financial strength ratings, fund ratings, asset manager ratings and real estate gradings. PACRA opinion is not a recommendation to purchase, sell or hold a security, in as much as it does not comment on the security's market price or suitability for a particular investor.