The Hindu Business Line : UTI Mutual Fund raises stake in IFGL

The fund house, which holds IFGL through UTI Master Value Fund, has upped its stake in line with the scheme's core investment objective, it is learnt.

Master Value, benchmarked against the CNX Midcap index, selects stocks that are undervalued in relation to their intrinsic value.

The company, it is learnt, is among the leaders in the refractories space, commanding a consolidated turnover of Rs 230 crore and a net profit of Rs 18.5 crore as on March 31, 2006.

IFGL has figured among Master Value's top-15 holdings, it is pointed out. The fund currently has a number of mid-cap counters.

Incidentally, the company had earlier informed NSE that UTI MF had acquired 6.95 lakh shares — aggregating to roughly 2 per cent of its capital — between October and December last year.

The mode of acquisition was through secondary market purchases.

Master Value Fund held 7.02 per cent of IFGL's equity as on March 31, 2006.

This made UTI MF among the company's critical shareholders. In all, mutual funds held over 11 per cent stake in the company on that date.

Master Value Fund has, in fact, lately stepped up exposure in IFGL, which accounted for 2.93 per cent of the scheme's NAV end-March, 2006. This was scaled up to 3.04 per cent as on May 31, 2005, according to the last available portfolio issued by UTI MF.

The company has stated that after acquiring the UK-based Monocon group recently, there has been a transfer of all its shareholding in Tianjin Monocon Refractories Co Ltd, PRC and Monotec Refractarios Ltd, Brazil, to its holding company, IFGL Worldwide Holdings Ltd. The latter is an Isle of Man outfit.

Incidentally, IFGL had invested £4.1 million in IFGL Worldwide Holdings. Monocon had earlier signed an agreement with Sun Hau Industrial Co of Taiwan for purchase of its 25 per cent shareholding in Monocon Taiwan Ltd.

One of IFGL's other critical shareholders, although with a much smaller holding, is Sundaram MF, courtesy Sundaram Select Midcap.