UNIT Trust of Fiji (UTOF) distributed a total of $7million in dividend payment to its 60,000-plus unit holders yesterday morning – it’s final dividend payout for the 2024 financial year ended December 31.
These are returns on investments for investors in its two main funds – Income and Growth Fund (IGF) and the Income Fund (IF).
The direct recipients are account holders that include young investors under 18 years, members of UTOF’s Employee Investment Scheme program, many families, women’s groups, associations, landowning units and corporates.
A dividend rate of 3.75 cents a unit was declared for IGF investors, which equated to $6.4million in tax-free dividends.
UTOF board chairperson Lavinia Kaumaitotoya said the IGF dividend rate declared for the same period in 2023 was 3.50 cents a unit.
Ms Kaumaitotoya said comparatively, the 2024 IGF total dividend rates stood at 7.50 cents per unit, compared to 7.00 cents per unit in 2023.
She said the capital growth component of its IGF total returns would be announced upon completion of the present year-end audit.
For IF investors, UTOF declared and paid out an annualised dividend rate (ADR) of three percent, resulting in a payout of more than $560,000.
“This is an increase from the ADR of 2.75 percent for the same period in 2023,” she said.=
She attributed this growth to the aggressive drive by the sales team to generate more traffic to UTOF for new investments.
She also acknowledged the management team’s vigorous due diligence of potential investee companies, and ongoing due diligence throughout investee companies’ operations.
UTOF chief executive officer Vilash Chand acknowledged the direct investment from people to the fund, and the value appreciation from the portfolio itself that also contributed to the growth.
“We have seen that most of the entities where we invested in, they have performed very well and they have provided us returns as expected, which means we were able to provide the dividend returns to our investors,” Mr Chand said.
The UTOF’s financial performance is being audited and an announcement of the full financial year results will be made at a later date.
