L&T Finance bought Fidelity's Mutual Fund’s India business
L&T Finance bought the Indian MF business of Fidelity Worldwide Investment on March 27, 2012. It has executed definitive agreements to acquire FIL Fund Management Private Limited (Fidelity AMC) and FIL Trustee Company Pvt Ltd, subject to regulatory approvals.
Fund manager changes
L&T Mutual Fund has appointed Venugopal Manghat as the Vice President & Co Head - Equity Investments and Shobheta Manglik as the Assistant Vice President and Fund Manager. Consequently, it has changed some fund management responsibilities from March 30, 2012. From then, Venugopal Manghat will manage L&T Growth Fund; Bekxy Kuriakose and Shobheta Manglik will jointly manage L&T Liquid Fund while L&T Floating Rate Fund will be jointly managed by Richa Sharma and Hareshwar Karekar. Further, Shobheta Manglik will manage L&T Gilt Fund, L&T Triple Ace Fund and L&T Monthly Income Plan (debt). L&T MIP - Wealth Builder Fund will be jointly managed by Shobheta Manglik (debt) and Pankaj Gupta (equity).
Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund changed the fund manager for foreign securities from March 21, 2012. Rajat Malhotra ceased to be the co-fund manager for investment in foreign securities for Franklin equity team. Murali Krishna Yerram will continue to be the dedicated fund manager for investment in foreign securities for Franklin equity team.
IDFC Mutual Fund appointed Rajendra Kumar Mishra as key personnel of the AMC; further, he will be the co-fund manager for IDFC Infrastructure Debt Fund from March 27. 2012.
Canara Robeco Mutual Fund will appoint Kiran Shetty as the co-fund manager of Canara Robeco Gold ETF along with Akhil Mittal from April 1, 2012.
Deutsche Mutual Fund appointed Aniket Inamdar as the fund manager of DWS Twin Advantage and DWS Money Plus Advantage from March 30, 2012. He will manage the equity portion of these funds. Consequently, Jignesh Barsara has ceased to be the fund manager of these funds.
Changes in scheme structure, offering and benchmark
SBI Mutual Fund will revise the benchmark index of SBI COMMA Fund from BSE 200 to CNX Commodities Index from April 1, 2012.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has informed that ICICI Prudential Blended Plan - Plan B will close for fresh/additional purchases/switch-ins on and from March 29, 2012. However, application for transfer of units from growth option to dividend option and vice versa will be accepted till April 10, 2012.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund closed subscription under ICICI Prudential Banking & PSU Debt Fund from March 31, 2012.
IDFC Mutual Fund has made several changes in IDFC Ultra Short Term Fund, with the first two applicable from March 27, 2012. Firstly, it has removed any limits on the minimum subscription amount. Secondly, it will charge an exit load of 0.25% if units are redeemed/switched out within 15 days from the date of allotment for all investments including SIP/Micro SIP/STP. Lastly, it has also declared dividend under quarterly dividend option of Plan A, which will be the entire distributable surplus, with the record date set as March 29, 2012. Later in the week, the fund house revised the maximum subscription amount under this fund to Rs 10,000 per application from March 30, 2012.
Principal Mutual Fund modified the average maturity profile of Principal Near Term Fund-Conservative Plan from 120 days to 370 days which will be effective from the business day immediately following April 27, 2012. Due to this fundamental change, all existing investors can exit the scheme at the applicable NAV without paying any exit load from March 29 till April 27, 2012.
Change in exit loads
Deutsche Mutual Fund has begun charging an exit load of 0.75% under DWS Short Maturity Fund from March 28, 2012 if units are redeemed /switched out within 6 months of allotment.
Principal Mutual Fund has stopped charging any exit load under Principal Index Fund from March 29, 2012. Till then, it used to charge an exit load of 1% if the units were redeemed or switched out on or before 30 days from the date of allotment.
Edelweiss Mutual Fund will charge an exit load of 2% under Edelweiss Absolute Return, Diversified Growth Equity Top 100, Select Midcap and Equity Enhancer Fund from April 2, 2012, if units are redeemed within 180 days of allotment and 1% if redeemed after 180 days but before 365 days of allotment. Further, from April 3, 2012, the fund house has decided to charge an exit load of 2% under Edelweiss MIP if units if units are redeemed within 180 days of allotment and 1% if redeemed after 180 days but before 365 days of allotment. It will charge an exit load of 0.50% under Edelweiss Short Term Income if units are redeemed within 180 days from the date of allotment.
Dividends declared
Reliance Mutual Fund declared dividend under some of its funds with the record date set as March 29, 2012. The schemes with their dividends per unit in parentheses are: Reliance Tax Saver (ELSS) Fund (Rs 1.50); Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Balanced Option (Rs 1.00); Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund - Retail Plan (Rs 1.50) and Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund - Institutional Plan (Rs 1.50).
Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund declared dividend under Birla Sun Life Dynamic Bond Fund- Retail Plan and Birla Sun Life Monthly Income. The quantum of dividend will be Rs 0.2395 per unit and Rs 0.1765 per unit respectively with the record date set as March 29, 2012.
SBI Mutual Fund declared dividend under the dividend option of Magnum Emerging Business. The quantum of dividend will be Rs 2.50 per unit with the record date set as March 30, 2012.
SBI Mutual Fund reduced the quantum of dividend for SBI Arbitrage Opportunities Fund from Rs 1.75 per unit declared earlier to Rs 1.40 per unit.