Guardian Acuity Money Market Fund wins Silver at CFA Awards

From left: Rachini Rajapaksa, CFA – Project Chair for the CFA Sri Lanka Capital Market Awards, Ruvini Fernando , CEO/Director Guardian Acuity Asset Management, Sanjay Kulatunga, CFA, President – CFA Sri Lanka, Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, Ray Abewardena, Director, Guardian Acuity Asset Management and Sumith Perera, Senior Fund Manager, Guardian Acuity Asset Management

The Guardian Acuity Money Market Fund won silver at the recently concluded CFA Awards night in the category of mutual funds. This was the first time that the CFA Institute recognized the mutual funds industry for their performance. 
The evaluation committee had laid out stringent criteria such as disclosure policies, risk management and compliance, investment process, trading practices and last but not the least formalizing practices that put the client first. 
“Guardian Acuity, given the fact that we are a part of two banks and a conglomerate, values our duty of care towards our investors” said Ruvini Fernando Executive Director of GAAM. Speaking further Ruvini stated that “We ensure that our investment selection, decision making, trading and reporting processes are objective, transparent and driven purely by what is good for our investors. We believe long term sustainable returns and good performance will only come about if we are disciplined in the way we manage our portfolios, ethical in our dealings with investors and put their interests first. This enables us to earn our investors’ trust and confidence, whilst delivering competitive returns. 
“From the moment we commenced operations we have ensured that our clients and the custodian banks are always kept well informed of the operations, ” said Champa Perera Operations Manager at GAAM.  Charged with ensuring compliance, reporting and timely publications of relevant information to all stakeholders, she and her team also ensure that every single client receives their statements, and, fund performance report and any other material information. “We are committed to the principle of continuous improvement are always exploring means to upgrade our systems 
and improve transparency” she further stated. 
The Guardian Acuity Money Market fund is more than 4 years old has returned 49.59 percent from inception in February 2012 to July 2016 to its investors which is annualized return of 11.42 percent. Shasika Wickramaratne is In charge of the fund which has assets under management of more than Rs.  5 billion. “The money market fund invests in government securities, fixed deposits, commercial papers and short term instruments and investments are carefully selected taking a balance between risks and returns and a view on future interest rates “Sashika said. 
Guardian Acuity Asset Management is a JV of Acuity Partners Ltd and Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust PLC. In turn Acuity Partners is a JV of Hatton National Bank and DFCC Bank. Ceylon Guardian Investment Trust is a the fund management arm of Carson Cumberbatch PLC and manages over Rs 29 billion in public and private wealth.