Al-Ahly’s AUMs seen drop to 10 bln Egyptian pounds by year-end

The investment arm of Egypt’s biggest state lender National Bank of Egypt, National Fund Management Company (Al-Ahly) expects to witness a decline in volume of assets under management by the end of 2016.

Essam Khalifa, Managing Director of Al-Ahly, told Amwal Al Ghad on Tuesday that his company’s AUMs were expected to fall to 10 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.1 billion) by the end of 2016.

Al-Ahly’s AUMs currently stand at 14.7 billion pounds.

The expected decline come as a result of instability in prices of stocks and the sharp fall witnessed by the Egyptian bourse’s indices since the start of 2016, Khalifa added.

Another reason will be the central bank’s decision to limit the total size of the banks’ investments in money market and fixed income funds to 2.5 percent of the bank’s total deposits in local currency down from 5% earlier, he added.

Al-Ahly manages seven mutual funds including various types and objectives; National Bank of Egypt Fund I (cumulative and income fund), National Bank of Egypt Fund II (periodic return), National Bank of Egypt Fund V (lottery and cumulative fund), Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank Fund (Islamic Fund), the Financial Sector Investment Fund (closed fund), National Bank of Egypt Fund IV (money market fund with daily cumulative returns), and a small portfolio of securities for the Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt.

The central bank had limited the total size of the banks’ investments in money market and fixed income funds to 2.5 percent of the bank’s total deposits in local currency or 50 times the bank’s maximum total investments in its owned money market funds or 2 percent of its tier-one capital, whichever is lower.