Alexander boasts of UTC’s performance

Alexander was speaking at the opening ceremony of Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation’s Arima branch on Wednesday. He added UTC has satisfied the investments demands of both their Growth and Income and Universal Retirement funds as well as a major investor in a wide cross-section of debt instruments in the short to medium end of the investment market.

According to Alexander, the success of UTC’s Growth and Income Fund offers investors a capital gurantee on an equity fund which has been the long-term vehicle through which thousands have achieved their financial goals. The behaviour of the local equity market in which the fund has substantial share ownership has been consistent with equity markets worldwide that evidence troughs and peaks, in response to the dictates of buyers and sellers during cyclical phases that may last as long as 18- 24 months.

Notwithstanding these sine wave simulations, the equity market over the ten-year period has averaged returns in excess of 25 percent. This equity market performance would have been mirrored by the Growth and Income performance and, therefore, an investor with $10,000 over a five-year period (2001-2005) could have accumulated almost $20,000 and over the last ten years would have exceeded $47,000.

Alexander noted the fund has always maintained a long-term perspective and UTC continues to encourage investors with long-term horizons and appropiate risk appetite.

Given the risks and commensurate levels of returns attached to an equity fund, the fund, which mobilised $40 million in 1982, has grown to a level of $5 billion, attracting 232,000 investors. He noted that the TT dollar Money Market Fund, over the last five years, has given investors an average rate in excess of seven percent and is expected to yield close to six percent in 2006. The US Money Market Fund has over the same period given investors in excess of six percent and is estimated to yield almost 5.5 percent in 2006. These funds have been further enhanced by their card service facility, which affords investors free and easy access to funds at ATM’s located within Trinidad and Tobago. In addition, the VISA Electron Card also provides for point of sale transactions at vendors across the globe and easy access to US dollars at VISA ATM’s worldwide.

On the basis of this therefore, UTC continues to have an optimistic view of the future performance of its equity-based funds and urges participation in same, Alexander said.