Government today received a dividend of $367,000 from the Unit Trust of Fiji (UTOF) for 2015 ($235,721) and ($131,000) for 2014.
Ministry of Public Enterprises permanent secretary, David Kolitagane received the dividend cheque from UTOF chief executive officer, Vilash Chand in Suva.
Mr Kolitagane said the UTOF is a high performing state-owned entity with an investment portfolio of about $127million, a growth of 14 per cent from $113million in 2014.
“If we go back five years, it was a mere $68million to $70million under management so that in itself is a big achievement for the company. Only in 2014, it went past the $100million mark. For such performance, it shows the level of confidence unit holders have who are investing into UTOF,” Mr Kolitagane said.
Mr Kolitagane added that Government is trying to increase efficiency and return on investments in the Unit Trust.
“As per the dividend policy, we are only getting 50 per cent of the total net profit. The company has really grown over the past decade.”
Mr Chand said investor confidence continues to be one of UTOF’s major drivers with the number of unit holders growing by 3.8 per cent to 16,111 this year.