Japan's Nippon bought stake in Reliance AMC
Japanese insurance major Nippon Life has picked up 26% stake in Reliance Capital Asset Management, for Rs 1,450 crore. The deal values the fund house at about Rs 5, 700 crore, or 6% of its assets under management.
Fund manager changes and appointments
ICICI Mutual Fund announced that Manish Gunwani will be the new fund manager for ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund, ICICI Prudential R.I.G.H.T. Fund, ICICI Prudential Indo Asia Equity Fund - Retail Plan and ICICI Prudential Equity & Derivatives Fund - Volatility Advantage Plan. Manish will take over the role that Prashant Kothari was serving earlier in managing these funds.
UTI Mutual Fund appointed Arpit Kapoor as the Fund Manager for the overseas investments. He will be in responsible for investment made in American Depository Receipts (ADRs), Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) / Foreign Securities of all domestic schemes launched or to be launched by the UTI Mutual Fund. Earlier, he was working as a fund manager-cum-research analyst for UTI AMC.
Taurus Mutual Fund has changed fund management responsibilities post the resignation of its fund manager Pankaj Jain. From January 10, 2012, the funds managed by Pankaj will be managed by Rahul Pal; he will solely managed the following schemes Taurus Liquid Fund, Taurus Gilt Fund, Taurus Quarterly Interval Fund Series 2, Taurus Short Term Income Fund, Taurus Ultra Short Term Bond Fund, Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan Series C (367 days), Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan Series D (370 days), Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan Series G (370 days), Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan Series K (91 days) & Taurus Fixed Maturity Plan Series L (91 days).
New fund launches
Franklin Templeton Investments (India) launched FT India Feeder - Franklin US Opportunities Fund, an open-ended Fund of Funds scheme investing overseas. The fund will invest in units of Franklin US Opportunities Fund, an overseas Franklin Templeton mutual fund, which primarily invests in securities in the US. The NFO period is from January 17 to January 31, 2012. The performance of the scheme will be benchmarked against Russell 3000 Growth Index and will be managed by Roshi Jain.
Indiabulls Mutual Fund launched Indiabulls Blue Chip Fund, its maiden equity scheme, with the primary investment objective ‘to provide long-term capital appreciation from a portfolio that is invested predominantly in equity and equity-related securities of blue-chip large-cap companies. The NFO period is from January 20 till February 03, 2012. The performance of the scheme will be benchmarked against S&P CNX Nifty and will be managed by Aviral Gupta, Amarjeet Singh and Sumit Bhatnagar (Associate Fund Manager).
Fundamental changes in scheme attributes
ING Mutual Fund has decided to merge ING Contra Fund with ING Dividend Yield Fund from February 24, 2012. All existing unit holders of ING Contra Fund which do not agree with this change may exit the scheme without payment of any exit load from January 26 till February 24, 2012.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has made some fundamental changes in ICICI Prudential Long Term Floating Rate Plan from February 21, 2012. It is changing the scheme’s name to ICICI Prudential Corporate Bond Fund with CRISIL Short-Term Bond Fund Index as the new benchmark. It will have quarterly as well as half yearly dividend options. Investors who are not in agreement with these changes can exit the scheme without paying any exit load between January 20 and February 20, 2012.
BNP Paribas Mutual Fund has modified the process for SIPs held in demat form. For units held / deemed to be held in such a mode, redemption / transfer of only those units would be allowed which are credited to his demat account till the date of submission of redemption / transfer request. Accordingly, redemption / transfer request will be rejected in case of non- availability of sufficient units in the investor's demat account as on date of submission of such request.
IDFC Mutual Fund introduced Periodic Dividend Option under IDFC Super Saver Income Fund-Short Term Plan C from January 21, 2012.
Exit load and dividend news
Pramerica Mutual Fund abolished exit load charges under Pramerica Dynamic Bond Fund from January 16, 2012. Prior to that date, an exit load of 0.50% was charged if units were redeemed or switched out before 180 days.
Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has stopped charging any exit load under Birla Sun Life Floating Rate Fund - Long Term Plan from January 16, 2012. Previously, the scheme charged an exit load of 0.25% if units were redeemed within 30 days from the date of allotment.
IDFC Mutual Fund declared dividend under Plan A and Plan B of IDFC Imperial Equity Fund. The quantum of dividend for Plan A will be Rs 1.2 per unit and Rs 0.6 per unit for Plan B subject with January 25, 2012 set as the record date.
Tata Mutual Fund declared dividend under dividend option of Tata Equity P/E Fund - Trigger Option A 5% scheme. The quantum of dividend will be Rs 1 per unit with the record date set as January 20, 2012.