Valletta Fund Management held its Quarterly Seminar for Bank of Valletta's authorised financial representatives on Friday 6th February at The Xara Lodge, Rabat.
The representatives were treated to an Asian theme in order to host and complement the fund managers of the Vilhena Far East Opportunities Fund. Kenneth Farrugia, Chief Business Development Officer, opened the seminar by thanking all the Bank of Valletta staff for their continuous support towards the VFM brand and highlighted the positive results achieved during the first quarter of this financial year.
Mr Farrugia referred to the challenging low yield scenario, making it difficult to actually gear clients towards investments, but current sales trends are showing that working homogeneously can gear the bank as a whole in the right direction. Mr Farrugia further stated that promoting a customer centric environment throughout the bank is of significant importance. Mr Farrugia concluded his opening speech by emphasising the importance of educational initiatives: 'To be able to win in the market place one must first win in the workplace and that is the only way companies could gain by having both an educated workforce and client base.'
Mark Agius, Executive Head - VFM gave an overview of the positive results for the period under review and congratulated the staff present for a 'successful servicing campaign'. Mr Agius also briefed the representatives with the latest data for the Vilhena Global Balanced Multi Manager Fund, considered as 'a success story' since its inception. The fund has reached a fund size of circa € 7.2 million. Mr Agius concluded by giving an overview of all planned marketing and educational initiatives for this financial year.
The attendees had the opportunity to meet the Waverton Portfolio Managers of the Vilhena Far East Opportunities, Edward Stileman and William Hanbury.
Mr Stileman and Mr. Hanbury delivered a presentation on the investment performance of the fund and gave an overview of their rigorous investment process.
Following the presentation, BOV staff members were given the opportunity to ask a number of questions related to the Vilhena Far East Opportunities Fund and the Asian market in general. Mark Vella, Head of Business Development also gave an overview of the international markets. Other staff members within the VFM Business Development team delivered presentations on the performance and outlook of VFM's range of funds in the current market conditions. A brainstorming session was organized for the attendees during the afternoon session.
Charles Borg, Chief Executive Officer - BOV concluded the seminar by stressing on the importance of the bank to continue to attract new clients. In this regard, Mr Borg pointed out the bank's strategy to harmonise all units and departments supporting the bank network.