PACRA maintains Stability Rating of ABL Islamic Money Market Fund

ABL Islamic Money Market Fund ("ABL-IMMF" or "the Fund") is categorized under a low-risk profile, with the objective of providing competitive returns through investment in a highly liquid, short-duration portfolio of Shariah compliant bank deposits and money market instruments. As of Dec'25, the Fund's Assets Under Management (AUM) stood at PKR 41,956mln, compared to PKR 27,767mln as of Jun'25 (the last review), reflecting a substantial ~51% expansion in fund size during the review period, indicative of strong and growing investor confidence in the Fund's Shariah-compliant money market offering. In terms of asset allocation, approximately ~72% of the portfolio was invested in cash, 25% in placements with banks/DFIs, and the remaining in other eligible instruments, underscoring the Fund's near-exclusive focus on liquidity. From a credit quality perspective, ~12% of the Fund's assets were invested in AAA rated instruments, ~78% in AA+ rated avenues, and ~7% in AA rated instruments, with the remainder allocated to other exposures. This investment-grade dominated credit profile reflects the Fund's conservative and Shariah-compliant investment approach, and is assessed as commensurate with its low-risk mandate. The Fund's Weighted Average Maturity (WAM) stood at 16 days as of Dec'25, indicating very limited sensitivity to interest rate movements and reinforcing the Fund's strong liquidity position. Meanwhile, the unit holding pattern indicates moderate concentration, with the top 10 investors accounting for ~41% of the Fund's total holdings, thereby exposing the Fund to moderate redemption risk; however, the Fund's highly liquid asset allocation and very short WAM profile provide adequate comfort regarding its ability to meet potential redemption requirements swiftly. In terms of performance, the Fund reported an annualized year-to-date return of 9.71% as of Dec'25, against a benchmark return of 9.51% and a peer average of 9.63%, reflecting an outperformance of 20 basis points over the benchmark and 8 basis points over peers, broadly demonstrating the Fund's ability to deliver competitive risk-adjusted returns within its conservative investment framework. However, while some improvement is noted at the lower end of the credit quality spectrum in line with the assigned rating criteria, the upper end remains short of the requisite threshold. Consequently, the Fund continues to be placed on Rating Watch until full compliance with the assigned rating criteria is achieved.
Going forward, portfolio rebalancing in line with the assigned rating benchmarks remains critical. Any material change in asset allocation affecting credit quality, liquidity, or interest rate exposure will remain a key rating consideration.

About the Entity
Incorporated in 2007, ABL AMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Bank Limited (ABL). ABL operates with 1,400 plus branches including 117 Islamic banking branches, 8 Digital/ Self Service branches & 2 overseas branches. ABL AMC possesses licenses for asset management, pension management and investment advisory services. As the leading private sector asset management and investment advisory Company in Pakistan, offerings include a comprehensive range of both Conventional and Shariah Compliant investment solutions across all major asset classes. Assets under management of the Company stood at ~PKR 287bln at the end of Dec'25.