What are Unit Trusts and What Does Apollo Asset Management Have for you?

They say that it is wise to invest and wait as compared to waiting before investing. An investment is always a wise move but investing in something that will give you better returns, no matter the economic wind is even a wiser move.

As much as many people would like and love to invest, a majority have hard their dreams dying without culminating into reality because of financial constraints. What people don’t know, is that there are amazing investment opportunities out there where one can invest with as little as 10,000 shillings and be assured of returns over a long period of time.

Have you ever heard of an investment avenue known as ‘unit trusts’? Many people don’t know what unit trusts are and how they work. To put this into perspective, I had a word with Mr. Fred Mburu, the Chief Executive Officer at Apollo Asset Management.

According to Fred, unit trusts are collective investment vehicles in which investors’ funds are pooled together to purchase a portfolio of financial securities such as equities, bonds, bills among others with the total value of the pool invested being split into equal portions called units.

“We manage assets for investors,” says Fred. “Many people, however, when they hear about us managing assets, all they think is about real estate and structures, but that is not what we do.”

According to Fred, unit trusts are investment opportunities where individuals come together, pool resources, with each contributing different amounts, then have someone (an asset manager) to invest on their behalf as they benefit from the returns.

“At Apollo Asset Management, we have three unit trusts that one can invest in. They include Apollo Balanced Fund, Apollo Equity Fund, and Apollo Money Market Fund,” said Fred.

The Apollo Balanced Fund is an investment that aims to balance a medium risk strategy by spreading its investments among ordinary shares, preferred stock, high yielding bonds, bank deposits and offshore investments. This ensures that the investor is always assured of a return in one of the investments in case one isn’t doing okay.

Apollo Equity Fund aims at generating long-term capital growth through investment in quoted equities and by investing in a diversified range of e-stocks across several sectors and is suitable for investors with higher risk profile seeking long-term capital growth.

Apollo Money Market Fund, on the other hand, is a short to medium term investment product that aims to give a reasonable rate of interest while preserving capital and offering liquidity.

“Unit trusts are the best forms of investment,” he says. “Imagine a situation where you give your money and an expert invests it for you. That means you have time to continue with other work as we run the ‘businesses for you.”

Other advantages of investing in unit trusts according to Fred include diversification where one’s risk is spread across hence lower risk. The investor is also assured of better yield sometimes going up to 14 percent annually. There is also an option one having to access their funds at any time without any restrictions.

“When one decides to pull out of the unit, we are not like other investment entities where one is prone to losing interest accrued. For us, we shall pay the interest accumulated up to the time of withdrawal.”