KD Funds – Best Management Company with best Fund Manager

(Ljubljana, 15 March 2017) KD Funds has in recent years been consistently winning top awards presented by a financial newspaper to the best mutual funds managers. This year is no different. At yesterday's award presentation ceremony, new laurels were added to the Best Slovenian Management Company awards won for 2013 and 2015 – KD Funds has again been recognised as the best management company on 2016. The company received as many as 10 Zvezdonos statuettes, while the title of Best Fund Manager in Slovenia went to Aleš Lokar, the manager of KD Galileo, the first mutual fund in Slovenia.

Aleš Lokar received four Zvezdonos awards for management of the KD Galileo and KD Rastko funds in three- and five-year periods. Two other members of the managers’ team of KD Funds, the best management company, were ranked among the top 11 managers in Slovenia: David Zorman (4th place) and Primož Cencelj (8th place).

KD Funds, the first management company in Slovenia established in 1994, also manages the first Slovenian mutual fund, KD Galileo. From its very beginnings, KD Funds has been committed to the highest standards of excellence, as confirmed by the many awards presented both in Slovenia and abroad.
This year’s highest award – five stars – went to the following winning funds:

for a three-year period:
• KD MM, money market – EUR.
• KD Galileo, mixed – global flexible.
• KD First Selection, equity – global.
• KD Rastko, equity – European.

for a five-year period:
• KD MM, money market – EUR.
• KD Bond, bond – European.
• KD Galileo, mixed – global flexible.
• KD First Selection, equity – global.
• KD Rastko, equity – European.
• KD New Markets, equity – emerging markets.

Luka Podlogar, President of the Management Board of KD Funds, is genuinely happy about the new awards: “We have proven once more that we are on the right track. Our focus is on our customers and the returns we yield, and the awards simply testify to the excellence of our fund management team. We have been achieving this thanks to our professional and high-quality management, which is the core of all our endeavours. Our customers recognise this. Our goal for the future is to remain the leading management company in Slovenia and the region. We will do our utmost to justify the trust placed in us by our investors.”

One of the awards went to KD Galileo, the first and oldest Slovenian mutual fund that this year is celebrating its 25th anniversary. This pioneering fund successfully paved the way in the Slovenian fund market. From 1 January 1992 till today, it has been trusted by over 52,000 investors, and with the current EUR 125 million assets under management it is the third largest mutual fund in Slovenia. In the 25 years of its operation, the fund has seen and been part of the Slovenian capital market development, the rise of capital markets as well as the financial crisis and the gradual recovery.

Today, the KD Galileo global mixed flexible fund is one of the 16 subfunds of the KD Umbrella Fund. Its excellence in asset management has been affirmed with numerous domestic and international awards.

KD Galileo is managed by Aleš Lokar, who has 20 years’ experience in finance. He worked as an analyst, asset manager and stockbroker for the BPH and PM&A stockbroking companies. From 2005, he was employed as an asset manager in the KD BPD stockbroking company. Since March 2008, he has been Senior Portfolio Manager at KD Funds. He is in charge of managing our two oldest and biggest funds, KD Galileo and KD Rastko, as well as KD Dividend.