CDH Asset Management, an investment banking subsidiary of CDH Holdings Ltd, has introduced a balanced fund to help investors grow their funds and get value overtime.
The CDH Balanced Fund is open-ended, which means investors can add more funds periodically and exit without restrictions.
It is designed to preserve and enhance wealth to meet medium to long term financial goals,, while creating liquidity to meet short term needs.
The Executive Director of CDH Asset Management, Rev Seth Akorlu Aryitey, said at the launch of the initial public offer on April 13 that a minimum of 5,000,000 shares were being issued at GH¢0.10 (10 pesewas) per share.
Prospective shareholders can purchase a minimum of 200 shares and thereafter in multiples of 50 shares.
Half of the fund would be invested in equities, listed or not, while the other half would be invested in fixed income securities such as treasury bills and bonds, hence the name balanced fund.
The executive director said the company decided to launch the scheme because it had the requisite skills and expertise in asset management which it wanted to put at the disposal of every Ghanaian.
“CDH Balanced Fund aims at preserving and enhancing shareholders’ wealth to meet medium to long term financial goals, while creating liquidity to meet short term needs,” he explained.
He later told the Graphic Online that the timing was most appropriate for such a fund, when people thought the economic fundamentals were not stable, saying, “if you want to grow your future and the economy, setting aside little funds as GH¢20 should not be despised.”
The offer is open from April 13-30, 2015 and customers can call at CDH Asset Management offices in any part of the country or its sister companies, Ivory Finance Company Ltd Phoenix Insurance Ltd, Phoenix Life; uniBank and Agricultural Development Bank to participate in the public offer.
The CDH Balanced Fund becomes the 45th collective investment scheme in the country, and one of the three new ones the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has licenced this year.
The Director-General of the SEC, Dr Adu Anane Antwi, said as of the end of last year collective investment schemes had a total of GH¢494.6 million funds under management.
The figure was 36.45 per cent higher or GH¢132.13 million more than the GH¢362.49 million mobilised by the end of December 2013. The 45 schemes comprise 27 mutual funds and 18 unit trusts.
Dr Antwi called for Ghanaians to shift their investment decisions from short term to long term, saying “it is such long term investments which are good for the development of the economy. Until we start thinking long term, we cannot develop the economy.”
The SEC director-general commended CDH Asset management for the initiative and called on them to play within the rules and regulations governing such collective investment schemes.
The Group Chief Executive of CDH Financial Holdings Ltd, Mr Emmanuel Adu-Sarkodee, recounted the challenges times the company went through some years back and commended some regulatory bodies which pepped it up and encouraged it to pick up the pieces.
“Today, your decision to stand by us has seen the CDH Group expand its base. We thank bodies such as the SEC for using its regulatory power as a security to give protection and not as a sword to kill,” Mr Adu-Sarkodee stated.