A new fund that give investors exposure to a range of Bermuda companies is due to start trading on the Bermuda Stock Exchange today.Bermuda First Investment Company Ltd (BFIC) is a fund with significant investments in companies including KeyTech, Ascendant Group and other BSX-listed companies. The major shareholder is Utilico Investments Ltd and the fund administrator is BCB Asset management Ltd.The Bermudian directors are BCB chairman Michael Collier, BF&M chairman Gavin Arton and Alasdair Younie, of the fund’s investment advisers ICM Ltd.Half the fund is in equities, the other half in loan notes which expire in seven years and offer a five percent yield.The prospectus indicates that the fund’s underlying assets are worth around $34 million. It owns 22.8 percent of KeyTech, 9.6 percent of Belco owner KeyTech and 2.1 percent of insurer Argus.BFIC’s 1.71 million common shares will start trading at US$10, while the 17.14 million unsecured 2019 loan notes were admitted to listing on the BSX at a price of BM$1 per loan note.“BFIC is a newly incorporated Bermuda exempt investment holding company that has a number of significant investments in Bermuda local companies,” a company news release said.“The principal objective of BFIC is to maximise shareholder value as measured by total return which includes both dividends received from its investments and capital appreciation of those assets.”The fund’s core strategy is to continue to build strategic investments in Bermuda local companies.“We are offering the man in the street the chance to invest in Bermuda companies without having shares in the underlying asset,” Mr Younie told The Royal Gazette yesterday.“These companies are offering good dividend yield and we believe that at this point, these dividends appear to be sustainable. With the banks paying very little interest on savings, we believe this could be attractive to many people.”Overall, he expected shares in the fund to yield between five and six percent.“Many of these companies are trading at a significant discount to book value,” Mr Younie added. “There’s a reason for that, of course, is that Bermuda is going through a very tough economic time. Bermuda may bounce back, but even in the short term, there is a lot these companies can do to improve returns for shareholders.”For that reason, the fund would trying to work with the companies it invested in to encourage more shareholder-friendly initiatives. It will seek board representation commensurate to its holdings in individual firms.Mr Younie said several years after the collapse of Butterfield Bank shares, which fell more than 90 percent in value as the bank posted hundreds of millions of dollars of losses on soured investments tied to US mortgages, investors may be rediscovering an appetite for investing in the local stock market. It was his hope that BFIC would help to stimulate interest and promote liquidity in the market.As well as being able to buy shares in BFIC, investors will be able to pool their local shareholdings in exchange for shares in the fund.