The Hindu Business Line : Update

Assets under management by mutual fund houses dipped by 3.3 percent in November, after rising in the preceding two months. 22 out of the 32 fund house sin operation witnessed a decline in asset size. Redemptions from liquid funds were the key reasons behind this trend. Reliance Mutual and ICICI Pru Mutual continued to top the list of fund houses based on asset size.

Korean financial services company Mirae Asset became the latest global major to line up a foray into the Indian mutual fund space, having secured the license to start mutual fund operations from SEBI this week. The fund plans to introduce 6-8 equity products and 3-4 debt products over the next 18 months. The asset management company will be capitalised at Rs.200 crore to start with.

Realty major DLF also plans to enter the Indian mutual fund industry through a joint venture with Prudential Financial Inc(US). DLF will be a minority shareholder in the JV holding a 39 percent stake, while Prudential will be the majority owner. The JV is awaiting regulatory clearance for the foray.

Sahara Mutual Fund plans to launch a child fund with a 65-80 per cent equity allocation and the remaining allocation to debt securities. The scheme will offer a wealth as well as a gift option. The fund proposes to charge a high exit to deter redemptions before the child attains 15 years of age.

Close on the heels of other international investment products from Tata Mutual Fund and Franklin Templeton, Kotak Mutual Fund has launched the Kotak Indo World Infrastructure Fund. The fund is a three-year closed end product which intends to invest at least 65 per cent in equity or related instruments of Indian companies related to infrastructure sectors and another 35 per cent in global infrastructure-related companies.

The fund also has the flexibility to allocate up to 35 percent of its assets to debt/money market instruments. The fund proposes to charge initial issue expenses of up to 6 percent which will amortised over the tenure of the scheme. Mr Krishna Sanghvi, Mr Abhijeet Dey and Mr Ritesh Jain will co-manage the fund, looking after the domestic portion, international portion and debt investments respectively.

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