The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency Limited
14-Oct-22
Analyst
Madiha Sohail
madiha.sohail@pacra.com
+92-42-35869504
www.pacra.com
Applicable Criteria
Related Research
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PACRA Upgrades Stability Rating of Atlas Liquid Fund
| Rating Type | Stability Rating | |
|
Current (14-Oct-22 ) |
Previous (29-Jun-22 ) |
|
| Action | Upgrade | Maintain |
| Long Term | AA+(f) | AA(f) |
| Short Term | - | - |
| Outlook | Stable | Stable |
| Rating Watch | - | - |
Atlas Liquid Fund (or the "Fund") is a low risk profile Fund. The assigned rating reflects the Fund's strong credit and interest rate risk profile emanating from its investment strategy. Since Jan'22 the Fund is consecutively comply the very strong credit quality criteria. The Fund had allocated 89.97% in banks, mainly rated AAA whereas ~8.7% in TFC/Sukuks. The duration and the WAM of the Fund stood at 10 days in the end Jun’22 (28 days at end Dec'21) limiting the exposure to low interest rate and credit risk. The Fund remained compliant with the rating criteria for the assigned ratings. The top 10 investors concentration of the Fund, at Jun’22 was ~99.9% of which 93% was related party holding, keeping very low level of redemption pressure.
Going forward, The asset quality of the assigned rating criteria would remain imperative to the rating and the material changes in the Fund's asset allocation strategy, impacting its credit quality and/or average duration, would affect the rating.
About
the Entity
Atlas Asset Management Limited, incorporated in August 2002 and a part of Atlas Group, is a wholly owned (100%) subsidiary of Shirazi Investments (Pvt.) Limited - the holding company of the Group. Atlas Group, established in 1962, is one of the well-known business groups of the Country with a presence in manufacturing, financial, and trading sectors.
AAML's seven-member board of directors comprises four representatives of Atlas Group, two independent directors and the CEO. The CEO of the Company, Mr. Muhammad Abdul Samad, has completed the Advanced Management Program from INSEAD and holds postgraduate qualifications from the University of Karachi and the Southeastern University, he also holds certification from IFMP. He has been associated with the Company for over seventeen years and held C-Suite positions for over a decade. He has a significant Board experience, where he has served as a director on the board of nineteen listed companies, including Atlas Battery Limited, Lucky Cement, Berger Paints, Mirpurkhas Sugar, amongst others along with vast experience of the mutual fund industry. The Company is currently managing five conventional and five shariah compliant funds, along with two in the VPS category. The assets under management stood at ~PKR 45bln at end Jun'22