GREENWICH SET TO LAUNCH THE FIRST NIGERIA ENTERTAINMENT FUND

The Securities and Exchange Commission has recently approved the initial public offering of Nigeria’s first mutual fund that focuses on promoting investment culture especially among practitioners in the entertainment industry. The Fund, which is sponsored and will be managed by Greenwich Asset Management Limited (GAML) is a balanced fund which will invest in various asset classes and targets to raise N1bn through the issuance of 10,000,000 units of the fund at N100 per unit from investors within and outside the entertainment industry at its initial offering.

This information was disclosed at the business lunch meeting held by Greenwich Asset Management Limited with some key practitioners in the industry under the theme “Promoting investment culture and enhancing growth in the Nigeria entertainment industry”. Richard Mofe-Damijo, a renowned actor and an independent investment committee member of the approved fund stated in his opening remarks “…this is a welcome development and I am happy to be part of this initiative by Greenwich Asset Management. I believe much better results emerge when professionals do what they know best, in this case we face our entertainment business and leave the management of our investments to professional managers like Greenwich…”

In his presentation, Dayo Obisan, Managing Director of GAML highlighted the growth and prospects of the industry and positive impact on the income of practitioners, and noted “…..the growth prospect of the industry and the unpegged income of the players form a compelling consideration for us to create a financial product that further promotes the culture of savings and investment among practitioners and also contribute to the industry’s development”. The fund, which will become open for subscription in August 2017 is structured as an open-ended fund and plans to make annual distributions to investors.

Greenwich Asset Management Limited is also the fund manager to the Greenwich Plus Fund, a money market fund which recorded a 144.8% subscription at its IPO in August 2016 and has continually paid quarterly income distributions to its investors since commencement of operations in September 2016. GAML is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Greenwich Trust Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading independent investment banks and is registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a Fund/Portfolio Manager.