Vilhena Funds obtains UCITS certification

Valletta Fund Management's Vilhena Funds SICAV p.l.c. has qualified to carry out the activities of a Maltese UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities). The MFSA has also issued a revised Investment Services licence for VFM to operate as a Maltese Management Company pursuant to the UCITS regulations.

All Funds within the Vilhena SICAV p.l.c. are now freely passportable throughout EU member states. UCITS is based on EU rules and regulations and is common to all EU member countries.

Peter Perotti, general manager at Valletta Fund Management said this was another milestone for Valletta Fund Management.

The UCITS directive was introduced to allow funds authorised by the regulator in any EU member state to be available and sold to customers elsewhere in the EU without requiring further authorisation.

" We recognise the potential of the European market and believe that we offer a number interesting products under the Vilhena Funds SICAV p.l.c. which could fit in the portfolio of EU residents. Moreover, we will be studying the possibility of introducing a number of niche products which could be promoted in selected EU countries," Mr Perotti said.

"Valletta Fund Management will be looking at the EU market more actively once Malta adopts the euro.

"We have been very active in adopting a strategy of being Malta's leading provider of euro denominated products by introducing a comprehensive range of funds investing across all asset classes which include money market, bonds, equity, property funds and absolute return funds. These funds are already extremely popular with Maltese investors and we are seeing an increased interest now that the decision to adopt the euro is final."

The UCITS certification will not change the fund currency, investment objective, investment policies and underlying investments of the Vilhena Funds and more importantly, this will not result in any additional cost for the Vilhena shareholders.

All Valletta Fund Management Limited's Funds are managed by Insight Investment Management (Global) Limited, the asset management arm of the Halifax Bank of Scotland one of the top UK Banking Groups and a FTSE 100 company. Insight Investment, one of the UK's largest asset managers, had £96.1 billion in assets under management as at March 31.