Analyst
Muhammad Zain Ayaz
zain.ayaz@pacra.com
+92-42-35869504
www.pacra.com
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Related Research
PACRA Assigns Initial Stability Rating to Atlas Islamic Money Market Fund
Rating Type | Stability Rating | |
Current (29-Jan-21 ) |
||
Action | Initial | |
Long Term | AA(f) | |
Short Term | - | |
Outlook | Stable | |
Rating Watch | - |
Atlas Islamic Money Market Fund (or the "fund") is an open ended shariah compliant market fund, managed by Atlas Asset Management Limited (AAML). In order to strengthen its relative position in Islamic money market category, AAML has launched the fund in Jan'21. The rating reflects the fund's high credit risk profile emanating from the fund's investment policy to invest in strong credit quality investment avenues with sound liquidity. On Jan-21, fund's assets were 100% invested with single bank rated 'AA'. Further, the investment policy of the Fund strictly prohibits investment in below AA rated avenues. The current weighted average maturity (WAM) of the fund is 1 day. Whereas the unit holding pattern is highly concentrated with top 10 investors representing 100% of the total fund size. The offering document of the fund, restricts the fund to liquid and low risk profile avenues, which limits the build-up of redemption pressure as well. Any breach of investment policy is considered negative.
Going forward, the fund is in process of diversifying its funds allocation by placing funds assets in in Islamic window of AAA and AA+ rated banks. The strategy represents high liquidity and low risk profile, which bodes well to the rating.
About
the Entity
Atlas Asset Management Limited, incorporated in August 2002 and a part of Atlas Group, is a wholly owned (100%) subsidiary of Shirazi Investments (Pvt.) Limited - the holding company of the Group. Atlas Group, established in 1962, is one of the well-known business groups of the Country with a presence in manufacturing, financial, and trading sectors.
AAML's seven-member board of directors comprises four representatives of Atlas Group, two independent directors and the CEO. The CEO of the Company, Mr. Muhammad Abdul Samad, has completed the Advanced Management Program from INSEAD and holds postgraduate qualifications from the University of Karachi and the Southeastern University and holds certification from IFMP. He has been associated with the Company for over fourteen years and held C-Suite positions for over a decade. He has vast experience of the mutual fund industry. The Company is currently managing four conventional and five shariah compliant funds, along with two in the VPS category. The assets under management stood at ~PKR 40.3bln at end Dec'20.