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The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited
Press Release

Date
10-Sep-21

Analyst
Muhammad Junaid
muhammad.junaid@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 NIT Money Market Fund

Rating Type Stability Rating
Current
(10-Sep-21 )
Previous
(10-Mar-21 )
Action Maintain Maintain
Long Term AAA(f) AAA(f)
Short Term - -
Outlook Stable Stable
Rating Watch - -

NIT Money Market Fund (or the 'Fund') is a low-risk profile fund. The assigned rating of the Fund reflects its good credit quality and its sound liquidity profile, which emanate primarily from its mandate to invest in government securities and other low-duration avenues such as bank placement and ensuring low exposure to interest rate risk. As per the authorized investment policy, the time to maturity of any asset should not be more than 6 months but the weighted average time to maturity of net assets should not be more than 90 days. At end Jun'21, ~96% of the Fund's assets were allocated to banks rated 'AA+' and above. The average duration of the Fund is 4 days, which highlights the superiority of its liquidity profile. The unit holding pattern of the fund is highly concentrated with the top ten investors representing ~74% of the Fund's assets, which exposes the Fund to potentially high redemption pressure.
Going forward, the Fund intends to maintain its asset allocation towards higher-rated banks. 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
National Investment Trust Limited was established in 1962 and is a pioneer in the mutual fund industry. The Company’s Board of Directors currently comprises ten board members out of which nine are non-executive. Mr. Adnan Afridi, CEO/MD who joined in Feb'19 holds profound experience in the financial services and capital markets. Mr. Manzoor Ahmed is the COO and has a successful track record of managing the operations and investment portfolio of the Company. The Company is currently one of the largest asset management companies in Pakistan with a portfolio of twelve open-end funds which includes two non-public funds namely NIT-SEF and NIT-EMOF, two voluntary pension schemes, and an exchange-traded fund. The assets under management of the Company stood at ~PKR 99,986mln (including SEF & EMOF) end-Jun'21.

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.