The Hindu Business Line : Travel the world

GET bewitched by the Sphinx. Enjoy an optional Dhow Cruise Dinner tour. Ride the high seas of the Asia-Pacific. Lines picked at random from exquisitely produced travel brochures, you'd think. Wrong!

These are being dished out by an outfit as humdrum as Birla Sun Life Distribution Company (BSDL), one of the many intermediaries that strive hard to route monies generated by corporates and high net worth individuals to mutual funds.

Welcome to the brave new world of MF distribution, complete with offers that few will be able to resist. The target audience in this case does not comprise investors, though. These offers are being made to whom BSDL (and some others of its kind) normally call "associates" or "business partners."

Just in case you are wondering what the offers actually are, here are a few samples. Mobilise Rs 2 crore and one could end up on a Nile cruise, part of an exotic Egyptian deal spanning seven nights. And there is an alternative proposal if Egypt is not to your liking. You can spend five nights on board the SuperStar Virgo, on your way to visit Singapore, Penang and Phuket.

Mobilise an amount that is a few notches lower — between Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore — and there will be an opportunity to spend two nights and three days in Dubai, described by the company as a destination that blends a modern city and a timeless desert.

Offers such as these and more are all pointing to the fact that MFs are increasingly being commoditised, investment circles state, adding that competition among fund houses is leading to even better and bigger handouts.

"For funds, the race for assets is becoming more acute by the day. It is at times quite appalling to see what some funds can do to get a larger share of the pie. That is partly reflected in the manner in which some distributors are being feted," said the CEO of a medium-sized fund on condition of anonymity.

Sources at Birla Sun Life specifically refer to what is being named as `Equity Festival 2004-05,' a gala that is essentially aimed at tapping investors in equity products. Associates can "win" the holidays and other prizes the company had agreed to give them. In fact, BSDL has actually used language that is commonly found in travel-related literature. Its promotional note urges associates to "pull out swimsuit and suntan lotion, grab those Hawaiian shorts and gear up to win a dream holiday."

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