Republic Investments confident of positive return in 2020
The Chief Executive Officer of Republic Investments, Ms Madeline Nettey, has assured investors of its Unit Trust Fund that it was still confident of making a positive return this year despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With just four months left for the year to end, she said although the expected return for the fund as planned at the beginning of the year might not be realised, it was still confident of finishing the year with a positive return.
Ms Nettey was speaking in an interview with the Graphic Business on the sidelines of its annual general meeting in Accra.
“The strategy at the beginning of the year has had to be re-calibrated several times based on development emanating from the COVID-19 pandemic. We were all anticipating that the pandemic would have ended earlier than we are currently experiencing, but it has dragged longer and has affected investor confidence, interest, as well as access to available capital to invest,” she explained.
She said that had adversely impacted on the company’s projected growth for its funds.
“If you look at the stock exchange market too, the performance has not been as expected. We were hoping for a bit more correction from the bearish performance it has been recoding over the past two years, but if we look at some reforms that had to come in at the beginning of the year where listed equities were asked to hold on with dividend payment, this was at a time that you will typically see interest in the stock market, but once that announcement was made, investors pulled back a bit and that adversely impacted the stock market.
“The future plan has a balance between equity and fixed income so the expected return for the fund may not realised as planned, but we are confident we will make a positive return. We have balanced the portfolio in such a way that the fixed income component is absorbing the shock from the losses of the equity side, so towards the end of the year we are still confident,” she assured investors.
Unit Trust Fund
The Unit Trust Fund of Republic Investments recorded an impressive performance in 2019, with the value of the fund increasing from GH¢232.93 million in 2018 to GH¢264.21 million, representing a growth of 13.4 per cent.
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