Ghaffar took over the reins of government-owned NIT on May 23, although the prime minister had approved his name for the post in the beginning of April.
With Shahid Ghaffar taking charge of National Investment Trust (NIT), Pakistan’s largest asset management company finally got a full-time managing director after a year-long delay.
Ghaffar took over the reins of government-owned NIT on May 23, although the prime minister had approved his name for the post in the beginning of April.
He is preceded by Wazir Ali Khoja, who was removed as NIT managing director by the Ministry of Finance on May 9, 2013. NIT Chief Operating Officer Manzoor Ahmed served as the managing director meanwhile.
Prior to joining NIT, Ghaffar served as head of investor relations and corporate representation as well as member of the management forum at Habib Bank. Earlier, he had also served as the chief executive officer of HBL Asset Management for more than six years where he was instrumental in the establishment of the company.
Speaking to The Express Tribune on Thursday, Ghaffar said he believes the asset management industry has tremendous potential to grow. According to the Mutual Fund Association of Pakistan (MUFAP), total assets under management of Pakistan’s asset management industry were Rs404.5 billion on May 29.
“The size of our asset management industry is roughly 5% of banking deposits. But it is as high as 150% in the case of the United States,” he said while highlighting the room for growth in the country’s asset management industry.
Assets under management of NIT’s mutual funds – National Investment Unit Trust (NIUT), NIT-Government Bond Fund and NIT-Income Fund – amounted to over Rs71 billion on May 29. This means NIT’s share in the industry’s total assets under management stands at over 17%, which makes it the single largest asset management company of the country.
Its stock fund, NIUT, is Pakistan’s largest stock fund with assets of over Rs63 billion.
“I’ll focus on educating potential investors about the benefits of investing in mutual funds,” Sattar said, adding that NIT’s number of investors is roughly 54,000.
“About 36% of our total assets under management come from our retail clients,” he said, claiming that no other asset management company in Pakistan has such a big retail clientele.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 30th, 2014.
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