THE
SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE LESOTHO UNIT TRUST
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1. The Management Company of
the Lesotho Unit Trust on Thursday, 21st August 2003 hosted the
Celebrations of the Second Anniversary of the Unit Trust that was
launched on 16th August 2001 under the framework of Collective
Investment Schemes Regulations of 2001. These are the rules and
standards of the Central Bank of Lesotho for all Collective Investment
Schemes and their operators have to abide by to be legally registered in
Lesotho. 2. The Lesotho Unit Trust was launched with the aim of creating an investment vehicle that would afford Basotho an opportunity to invest in the economy of Lesotho and share in the wealth created by the privatisation initiative adopted by the Government of Lesotho in 1995. 3. Before the launch, the Government laid down the following conditions to be met by Lesotho Unit Trust: Commitment from institutions from Lesotho to invest M10 million in the Lesotho Unit Trust. In July 2001 two financial institutions in Lesotho, Standard Bank and Lesotho National Insurance Group had each committed an investment of M5 million to Lesotho Unit Trust. That Lesotho Unit Trust would have to achieve a minimum size of M25 million to be financially sustainable. By August 2002 the fund size was estimated at M30 million with a 9.95 % return on investments. 4. It was announced during the Ceremony that the Lesotho Unit Trust currently has 1226 investors with 101 institutional and group investors while the rest were individual investors. The overall financial performance of Lesotho Unit Trust can be measured by ‘how much it is worth’, the fund Size or the market value. Between January 2002 until June 2003 the market value of the Lesotho Unit Trust increased by 257% from M16. 6 million to M59.3 million. 5. In its two years of operations from August 2001 to June 2003, the value of each unit grew by 21.94% and this resounding success occurred in extreme volatility that was experienced by world markets and the large corporate scandals that occurred in the US in 2002. 6. Since its Launch, the Lesotho Unit Trust has had two privatised enterprises included in its investment portfolio. These are the Lesotho Bank 99 (Pty) Ltd and AON (Pty) Ltd. Arrangements to include a third enterprise, Lesotho Brewing Company in its portfolio have recently been completed. The financial performance of three additional privatised enterprises is under review to determine if their shares should be included in the investment portfolio of the Lesotho Unit Trust. The three companies are Lesotho Flour Mills (Pty) Ltd; Imperial Fleet Services Lesotho (Pty) Ltd; and Telecom Lesotho (Pty) Ltd. 7. An important responsibility of the Management Company is to educate the public about the benefits to be derived from investing in the Lesotho Unit Trust. The principal vehicles of awareness have been radio, leaflets distributed to Lesotho and Standard Bank outlets, and road shows conducted throughout the country. The road shows which are a joint effort between the Management Company and the Government though the Privatisation Unit have had a positive effect as evidenced by an increase of over 147% in the number of unit units sold to date. 8. Although the public awareness campaign is still ongoing throughout the country including in the high schools, the Management has noted that, outside Maseru, purchase of the unit trusts seems to have been particularly brisk in the mountain districts of Qacha’s Nek, Mokhotlong and Thaba-Tseka. |
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Designers