Silver for Guardian Acuity Money Market Fund from CFA Institute

From left: CFA Sri Lanka Capital Market Awards Project Chair Rachini Rajapaksa, Guardian Acuity Asset Management CEO/Director Ruvini Fernando, CFA Sri Lanka President Sanjay Kulatunga, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore Ambassador-at-Large Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, Guardian Acuity Asset Management Director Ray Abewardena, Guardian Acuity Asset Management Senior Fund Manager Sumith Perera

The Guardian Acuity Money Market Fund won silver at the recently concluded CFA Awards night in the category of mutual funds. This was the first time that the CFA Institute recognised the mutual funds industry for their performance. The evaluation committee had laid out stringent criteria such as disclosure policies, risk management and compliance, investment process, trading practices and last but not the least formalising practices that put the client first. 

“Guardian Acuity, given the fact that we are a part of two banks and a conglomerate, values our duty of care towards our investors,” said GAAM Executive Director Ruvini Fernando. Speaking further Ruvini stated, “We ensure that our investment selection, decision making, trading and reporting processes are objective, transparent and driven purely by what is good for our investors. We believe long term sustainable returns and good performance will only come about if we are disciplined in the way we manage our portfolios, ethical in our dealings with investors and put their interests first. This enables us to earn our investors’ trust and confidence, whilst delivering competitive returns. Our team is strongly committed to those values, which put our management focus on the investor rather than on us.”

The GAAM Money Market Fund has seen net inflows of Rs. 761 million (not taking into account switches to and from its sister fund the Guardian Acuity Money Market Gilt Fund), from January to June 2016, whereas among its core peer funds there has been a net outflow of Rs. 25.4 billion in the same period. “At a time when the investors are concerned about security, our willingness to be transparent has been recognised by our valued clients,” said Ruvini. 

“From the moment we commenced operations we have ensured that our clients and the custodian banks are always kept well informed of the operations,” said GAAM Operations Manager Champa Perera. Charged with ensuring compliance, reporting and timely publications of relevant information to all stakeholders, she and her team also ensure that every single client receives their statements, and, fund performance report and any other material information. “We are committed to the principle of continuous improvement are always exploring means to upgrade our systems and improve transparency,” she further stated. 

The Guardian Acuity Money Market fund is more than four years old has returned 49.59% from inception in February 2012 to July 2016 to its investors which is annualised return of 11.42%. Shasika Wickramaratne is in charge of the fund which has assets under management of more than Rs. 5 billion. “The money market fund invests in government securities, fixed deposits, commercial papers and short term instruments and investments are carefully selected taking a balance between risks and returns and a view on future interest rates,” Sashika said. 

Guardian Acuity Asset Management is a JV of Acuity Partners Ltd. and Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust PLC. In turn Acuity Partners is a JV of Hatton National Bank and DFCC Bank. Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust is a the fund management arm of Carson Cumberbatch PLC and manages over Rs. 29 billion in public and private wealth.