Fund notes K3.39mil increase

COMRADE Trustee Services Ltd (CTSL) has recorded an improvement of K3.39 million as a result of inflows from member contributions being higher than pay outs.
This, according to the fund’s management, was the first time since 2016.
This was among the four milestones, the fund had achieved last year despite the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
CTSL statutory manager Sitiveni Weleilakeba said the fund size was K618 million and continued to grow despite the Covid-19; the collection of State unfunded liability was K34 million and management expense ratio was 1.89 per cent, the first time since 2016 to fall below two per cent.
Weleilakeba noted that the net asset value grew by K20 million or 3.3 per cent compared to 2019.
“This growth was attributable to financial assets ‘fair value’ improvement,” he said.
“This is related to fair value improvements with BSP shares and favourable movements in Toea Homes Ltd land inventories.
“This was achieved despite the devastating impact of the Covid-19 throughout the PNG economy since 2020.
“In examining the profit and loss account performance, we observed a different trend influenced primarily by the impact of the Covid-19.
“Total revenue dropped by K7.5 million or 17.1 per cent compared to 2019 performance.
“This was mainly contributed by the reduction in dividend receipts and major drop in property income.
“In terms of net profit after income tax, we achieved K24.5 million which is 21.6 per cent below what we achieved in fiscal year 2019 but was ahead by 3.3 per cent against fiscal year 2018 performance and appropriately 50 per cent ahead of our revised forecast for the year under review.”
Weleilakeba said since the onset of the Covid-19 last March, the fund acted promptly and reviewed its cost of operations, re-aligned costs to the corresponding income generating activities and took strict measures on areas where cost-savings could be achieved.
“As a direct result of this, we were able to reduce for the first time since 2016 our management expense ratio below 2.0 per cent,” he said.
He said the management expense ratio achieved in FY20 was 1.89 per cent.
Weleilakeba also noted that the fund declared a crediting rate of five per cent to be made to members account for the period ending last Dec 31.