Ceylon Asset Management yesterday launched Sri Lanka’s first ever Dollar Bond Fund.

Up to now the Sri Lankan capital market has used the rupee product and with this new dollar product the reach of the investment arm of Sri Lanka. At the event Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) licensed the country’s first ever dollar bond fund.

Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) speaking at the launch of Ceylon Dollar bond fund said, "We need certain types of infrastructure in place to introduce new products in the capital market.

We were not able to introduce new capital market products over the years due to lack of capital market infrastructures. However, we have been very ambitious of development in the local capital market. I'm confident that the launch of the dollar fund would definitely help develop the local capital market journey and I'm confident that people will make use of this."

Ceylon Dollar will cater to the US Dollar investors who wish to achieve capital appreciation and income growth over a period of time and targets foreign institutions along with BOI approved companies in Sri Lanka and foreign retail investors. The open-ended fund allows for withdrawal at anytime and to invest without the requirement of a SIA account. The minimum investment for the fund is USD 1,000 to attract Sri Lankan Diaspora investors.

The new Ceylon Dollar Bond Fund invests exclusively in dollar dominated Sri Lankan sovereign bonds, bank and corporate issued dollar bonds. Managed by Ceylon Asset Management (CAM), with Deutsche Bank AG as the trustee and custodian, the fund will be rated by Fitch Ratings, where the risk exposure is limited to sovereign and bank risk.