PACRA Revises Stability Rating of ABL Islamic Cash Fund

ABL Islamic Cash Fund (“ABL-ICF” or “the Fund”) continues to demonstrate a stable profile within the Shariah-compliant money market category, maintaining its focus on liquidity, preservation of capital, and competitive returns through a conservative investment strategy. As of September 2025, the Fund reported an AUM base of PKR 16.8 billion. The Fund’s asset allocation remained highly liquid, with ~79% placed in cash, ~10% in placements with Banks/DFIs, ~9% in short-term Islamic Sukuks, ~1% in government-backed securities, and the remaining ~1% in other approved avenues. This allocation supports the Fund’s objective of maintaining a low-risk profile while ensuring timely liquidity for its investors. From a credit quality perspective, the Fund remained positioned in sound investment avenues, with ~78% allocated to AA-rated exposures, ~9% in A1, ~6% in AA+, and ~6% in government securities/AAA-rated instruments. The Fund’s Weighted Average Maturity (WAM) stood at 15 days at end-Sep’25, aligning with PACRA’s criteria for funds seeking to limit credit and interest rate sensitivity. The short-duration structure continues to support stability across varying market conditions. The unit holding pattern of the Fund remained concentrated, with the top 10 investors accounting for ~83% of total units as of September 2025. However, the presence of pension funds within this concentration comprising approximately 35%, provides stability due to their typically longer-term investment behavior, thereby moderating redemption pressure. While the Fund continues to exhibit strong liquidity and maintains a disciplined approach toward Shariah-compliant money market investments, its current portfolio composition diverges from PACRA’s benchmarks for the previous rating tier. Accordingly, the rating has been revised to better reflect the Fund’s prevailing credit quality, while still recognizing its inherent stability and consistent adherence to its objective of delivering competitive returns through liquid, Shariah-compliant instruments.
Going forward, any material changes in asset allocation, credit quality, or deviation from the assigned rating criteria may impact the Fund’s rating.

About the Entity
Incorporated in 2007, ABL AMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allied Bank Limited (ABL). ABL operates with 1,400 plus branches including 117 Islamic banking branches, 8 Digital/ Self Service branches & 2 overseas branches. ABL AMC possesses licenses for asset management, pension management and investment advisory services. As the leading private sector asset management and investment advisory Company in Pakistan, offerings include a comprehensive range of both Conventional and Shariah Compliant investment solutions across all major asset classes. Assets under management of the Company stood at ~PKR 318bln at the end of Oct'25.