May 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of the American Gas Association’s Gas Utility Index Fund. And while that may be common knowledge, I’ll let you in on a little known piece of trivia that makes this celebration kind of special to us AGAers.
Back in 1989, a lone AGA staffer used a newfangled desktop computer to determine what kind of return AGA member companies would have offered investors had they been in an index fund for the previous 20 years. It turns out that theoretical fund would have returned an average of nine percent. Armed with that encouraging scenario, the American Gas Utility Fund was born and has been going strong ever since.
Now called the FBR Gas Utility Index Fund (GASFX), the fund is still comprised of AGA’s publicly traded member companies. With assets in excess of $150 million and more than 13,000 shareholders, GASFX continues to be an excellent investment in the energy utility industry.
For more information about GASFX, please visit Morningstar. You can also read a great story on the fund in American Gas Magazine.
