PACRA Maintains Stability Rating of Atlas Islamic Cash Fund

Atlas Islamic Cash Fund ("AICF" or "The Fund") is a low-risk, Shariah-compliant money market fund, structured to offer competitive risk-adjusted returns while ensuring high liquidity and capital preservation. The Fund seeks to cater to conservative investors with short-term investment horizons, by constructing a portfolio of high credit quality, low-duration Islamic money market instruments. As of March 2025, AICF maintained a well-diversified asset allocation, reflecting prudent risk management and tactical positioning amid evolving macro-financial dynamics. In terms of asset class, approximately 34% of the portfolio was deployed in placements with highly rated Banks and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), while 31% was held in cash to preserve liquidity buffers. The Fund also held strategic exposures of ~17% in high quality Corporate Sukuks and ~14% in sovereign-backed Government Ijarah Sukuks, with the remaining ~1% allocated to other Shariah-compliant instruments. This allocation underscores the Fund’s disciplined investment approach and adherence to both liquidity and credit quality constraints. From a credit risk perspective, AICF demonstrated strong credit selectivity, with ~38% of the portfolio allocated to sovereign and AAA rated instruments, ensuring minimal default risk. The Fund maintained exposures of approximately 26% in AA rated instruments, 16% in AA– rated avenues, and 17% in A1+ and A1 rated Sukuks, balancing yield enhancement with credit vigilance. This credit profile reflects a focus on capital preservation without compromising Shariah compliance or yield efficiency. The weighted average maturity (WAM) of the Fund stood at a conservative 61 days at the end of March 2025, positioning it effectively to navigate short-term interest rate movements and credit spread volatility. The low WAM further aligns the Fund with its liquidity first investment philosophy and reduces duration sensitivity.
Going forward, the material changes in the Fund's asset allocation strategy, which could impact the Fund's credit quality and exposure to interest rate risk, would remain critical for the rating.

About the Entity
AAML, incorporated in August 2002, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shirazi Investments (Pvt.) Limited – the holding company of Atlas Group. Atlas Group, founded in 1962 with the establishment of Shirazi Investments, is a diversified group with having presence in manufacturing, power, financial services, and trading. The Company’s seven-member Board of Directors comprises five representatives of Atlas Group including the CEO, the other two are independent directors. Mr. Iftikhar H. Shirazi serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of AAML along with several other companies of the Group. The board has three committees to provide oversight on the Company’s affairs: 1) Audit Committee, 2) Human Resource & Remuneration Committee, and 3) Investment Committee. The Company had AUMs of PKR 119,064 mln at end of Mar'25.