Amana Capital assets under management represented by the Amana Unit Trust Funds have shrunk to Ksh.75.6 million as of the end of March this year.
This represents a 44.2 percent dip in the fund’s value from a higher Ksh.135.4 million at the end of December last year.
The more than 87 percent decline in clientele funds is largely attributable to investor flight following a tumultuous year for the fund.
The Amana Unit Trust Funds held a greater Ksh.590 million at the end of 2019.
It lost in excess of Ksh.255 million in the collapse of retailer Nakumatt while another Ksh.185 million was stuck in Jamii Bora Bank, which is now a Cooperative bank subsidiary under the name Kingdom Bank after a 2020 buy out.
The losses previously forced Amana Capital to freeze withdrawals from clients for the better part of 2020.
In December last year, however, Amana Capital made available 41 percent of client funds or an equivalent Ksh.122 million in deposits at the Kingdom Bank, the Co-operative Bank and I&M.
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In the same month, the firm brought back former Chief Financial Officer Reginald Kadzutu as its interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to guide a new turnaround strategy for the fund manager.
During an AGM held in September last year, members approved the remaining 59 percent in the Amana Shilling fund class B to be converted into a 30 percent equity stake in Amana Capital Limited, representing the Ksh.255 million funding gap.
“The objective is to provide the shareholders affected by the funding gap to recover their investment through a dividend policy from profits generated from management fees. The investor and management team are tasked to secure new funds under management over the next year to exceed KSh300Million,” said the firm statement.
The initial phase of three step-turnaround process running to the end of June this year has involved a rebuild of internal capacities to include the recruitment of new staff, re-purposing internal processes & procedures and digitization.
The continued bleed out of client funds will, however, serve to dent the turnaround process by reducing income from management fees which is traditional calculated as a percentage of assets under management (AUM).
Local collective investment schemes (CISs) now have Ksh.111.09 billion after crossing Ksh.100 billion in client funds in December last year.
