Assets under management (AUM) of mutual fund industry continued to decline for the third consecutive month. It has declined 7 per cent in November as compared to its level in October. Total assets currently stood at Rs 4,02,029 crore and it has seen second-highest monthly decline in a month.

All leading fund houses have seen asset decline, excluding UTI and Tata Asset Management. Mirae Asset Management has lost more than 69% of its AUM so far. CEO of Mirae Asset, Arindam Ghosh said that the company has seen very low investment in the equity funds.

In a formal announcement, one of the leading financial services groups of India, Religare Enterprises (REL), confirmed that it has agreed to acquire Lotus India asset management company (Lotus India AMC) from its majority shareholders - Alexandra Fund Management and Sabre Capital.

Informing the Bombay Stock Exchange of the intended proceedings, REL said that its board of directors has approved a proposal to discuss, negotiate and finalize the terms for acquiring 100 per cent or majority equity shareholding of Lotus.

UTI Mutual Fund, the country's oldest fund house has introduced ‘UTI Fixed Term Income Fund Series V-VIII’, a close-ended income scheme in the market.

The investment objective of the scheme is to generate regular returns by investing in portfolio of fixed income securities normally maturing in line with the maturity period of the plan.

The scheme will invest up to 5-100% in debt including securitized debt and 0-95% in money market instruments. The scheme may invest up to 100% in the securitized debt.

State Bank of India (SBI), India's largest commercial bank has signed a Joint Venture pact with Macquarie Group and International Finance Corporation (IFC).

Under the arrangement, both foreign partners will help the lender in the set up and management of an Infrastructure Private Equity Fund for investing in Indian Infrastructure projects and Companies. 

However, the fund will be operational on receipt of requisite regulatory approvals. The JV agreement is based on the earlier MOU signed on April 16, 2008. 

Reliance Mutual Fund, Country's No 1 fund house, has launched 'Reliance Fixed Horizon Fund- X-Series 8', a close-ended income scheme in the market. The face value of new issue is Rs 10 per unit. 

The primary investment objective of the scheme is to seek to generate regular returns and growth of capital by investing in a diversified portfolio of central and state government securities and other fixed income/debt securities normally maturing in line with the time profile of the scheme with the objective of limiting interest rate volatility. 

UTI Mutual Fund, the country's oldest fund, has launched its unique 'UTI Wealth Builder Fund-Series II', an open ended equity oriented scheme in the Indian market.

UTI claims that UTI Wealth Builder Fund-Series II is the first of its kind in the mutual fund industry to offer asset allocation which combines traditional as well as non- traditional asset class i.e. Equity and Gold.