By  Michael Eboh
Access Investment and Securities (AIS) Limited has called on investors to take advantage of the gains presented by its newly introduced mutual funds — the Access Fixed Income Fund and the Access Balanced Funds.

According to a statement by the company, which is also the fund managers, the objective of the funds is to achieve long term returns and provide investors with significant appreciation on their investments with minimal risk.

The Access Fixed Income Fund and Access Balanced Fund, valued at N1 billion each, are opened to investors, with a minimum investment of N50,000 for 500 units.

The prospectus of the Fixed Income Fund declared that the fund may invest up to 90 per cent of its net Asset value (NAV) in Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) fixed income securities and up to 10 per cent may be invested in cash and cash equivalents to meet the day to day liquidity requirement of the fund.

On the other hand, the Access Balance Fund, according to the fund manager, will, under normal market conditions invest up to 50 per cent of its NAV in equity securities and up to 40 per cent fixed income securities and up to 10 per cent in cash and cash equivalents.

The managers further stated that under adverse conditions, the Access Balance Fund may invest up to 100 per cent in cash and cash equivalents to earn better returns on its investments compared to returns from the stock market.
It said that the fund will take advantage of its size to negotiate competitive rates on its cash assets.

The fund manager said, “The primary objective of the Access Fixed Income Fund is to achieve long term returns that are relatively uncorrelated with the equities market, while the primary objective of the Balanced Fund is to provide investors with income and capital appreciation while avoiding excessive risk.”

Target investors for the Balanced Fund include: young professionals, clients looking to take advantage of the current opportunities in the stock market, clients seeking current income stream and benefit from the upside potentials of the stock market, clients seeking to accumulate wealth and parents investing for children’s future trust funds.

On the other hand target investors for the Fixed Income Fund include: employees nearing retirement, clients with no exposure to fixed income securities, risk-averse investors and clients seeking constant income.

Also, the Access Balanced Fund, according to the fund managers is for investors who are not concerned with short term volatility in the stock market for potential long term gain, who are comfortable with relatively higher risk investments for a higher return and who are looking to grow their investment portfolioo among other benefits.

The Fixed Income Funds, on the other hand, is for investors who are concerned with short term volatility in the stock market, who are seeking to protect the value of their investment from the effects of inflation among others.