FirstBanc Heritage Fund Records 41.52% Return

The FirstBanc Heritage Fund posted an impressive performance in 2017 with a year-to-date return of 41.52 percent, its second highest in eight years.

Professor John Bright Kobla Aheto, Chairman of the Board of Directors told a shareholders' at their annual general meeting that the strong performance came on the back of notable price returns generated by the financial and petroleum sectors.

'The Fund also witnessed a large increase in net deposit growth, mainly due to renewed investor confidence in the market and the Fund, with huge influx of institutional clients' deposits.'

He said the high net deposit growth coupled with the high investment return led to the significant increase in the Fund's assets under management from GH¢1.65 million at the end of 2016 to almost GH¢7 million at the end of 2017, representing a growth of over 320 percent.

Prof. Aheto said 2018 would turn out to be another good year for the as the performance of the stock exchange was very positive, buoyed by the renewed investor interest as a result of the remarkable market performance in 2017.

Improvement in macroeconomic indicators, with expected conducive business environment, wouldalso impact positively on listed stocks on the Accra Bourse, he added.

He assured current and prospective investors of the Board and Management's resolve to intensify risk management processes to check any adverse impact on the fund.

In its report, the Fund Manager, Ms Josephine Kotey, said they were expecting that clients would respond to the anticipated strong performance with significant amounts of deposits, with a larger proportion, coming from institutional investors.

She projected that assets under management would double by close of 2018, based on expected increase in net deposits and good return.

Currently, FirstBanC has two branches in Accra, one in Tema and another in Kumasi.

She said plans were underway to open a branch in Takoradi or Tarkwa in the Western Region.