The fight for the leading outlook in the mutual fund business started again in March, with Reliance Mutual repossessing the peak it had gave up to Prudential ICICI.

As on March 31, 2007, Reliance Mutual’s assets under management (AUM) stood at Rs 46,307 crore, whereas Prudential ICICI was ranked second at Rs 37,870 crore.

Bajaj Auto and Allianz annunciated the partnership plan for distributing credit cards, mutual funds, home loans and personal loans.

Unlike the former joint ventures for their insurance business, the novel partnership plan is a 50-50 partnership between the two companies.

The company-Bajaj Allianz Financial Distributors will have a paid up capital of Rs 2.4 crore. It will allocate financial products of different asset management companies, banking and non-banking (financial) institutions.

The recently made venture is yet in discussions with parties and did not reveal the products it will be dealing out.

Mumbai: SBI Mutual Fund has crossed Rs 20,000-crore mark in assets under management (AUM) as on 30 June, 2007.

According to a release the AUM of SBI MF stood at Rs 20,272 crore as on June 30 and it is placed sixth among existing fund houses. SBI Mutual funds Achieves Milestone

While commenting on the milestone achieved Syed Shahabuddin, Managing Director and CEO, SBI Mutual Funds stated, “SBI Mutual Fund's excellent run is a reflection of the fund house's ability to understand the needs of investors and introduce products suited to their needs.”

SBI MF has an investor base of over 35-lakh spread over 40 schemes.

Mumbai: SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd has tied up with Dena Bank to increase the fund’s reach.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Syed Shahabuddin, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, SBI Mutual Fund, and U.S. Kohli, Executive Director, Dena Bank.

“The tie up with Dena Bank is prestigious as our quality products would now be available to the bank’s customers across the country,” Mr. Shahabuddin stated.

As of July 31, 2007, the total assets under management of SBI Mutual Fund stood at Rs 25,862 crore. Dena Bank has a total network of more than 1,100 divisions and satellite offices.

Sensex has missed 1,600 points from its highest level and ratings have descended to 17 times profits from a high of 21 times and lots of brokerage houses consider it is a beneficial time to buy.

Mutual funds do not want to ignore this chance moreover. According to sources, Reliance Mutual Fund is all set to initiate novel funds worth Rs 8,000-Rs 12,000 crore shortly.

Mumbai: The Housing Lender HDFC today announced closure of its first sponsored HDFC International Real Estate Fund (HIREF) at $800 million, which would be invested in FDI-compliant Indian real estate plans.

According to a company release, the fund makes HDFC the biggest player in the realty private equity space in India.

One of the prime international realty pools, the nine-year close-ended fund, which was open only to foreign investors had been privately placed and subscribed by 28 investors.

Mumbai: Planning to launch schemes that invest overseas, Mutual funds are likely to get a lot more freedom in terms of investment options and limits. The government and financial sector regulators are working collectively to liberalise the norms that govern mutual funds. Likely to be finalized soon, the proposal envisages giving fund managers a lot more overseas investment options including debt securities not below the investment grade and possibly derivatives.

Mumbai: Franklin Templeton Asset Management (India) Pvt Ltd has stated that it will introduce Plan D under Templeton Fixed Horizon Fund-Series II today (September 12). The fund will have tenure of 370 days.

The fund house said the fund would invest in debt and money market tools. It would be open for initial subscription until September 17.
The fund will charge an exit load of up to 2.5% on redemptions before due date (maturity).

The information from Association of Mutual Funds in India showed that the fund house managed assets worth about Rs 30000 crore at the end of August.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India has raised the limits for overseas investments by mutual funds. The limit has been increased from current US $200 million to US $ 300 million. The move will help mutual funds to invest more in many overseas markets offering better return compared to India. For the second time this year, the overseas investment rules have been liberalized by SEBI.

New Delhi: The Finance minister P Chidambaram has launched the National Investment Fund (NIF) on Saturday, after two years since authorization of its establishment.

The NIF has got its initial funding of Rs 994.82 crore from earnings of sales of administration’s 5% stake in Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) that got listed on Friday. Mr. Chidambaram handed over cheques to the CEOs of the three asset management companies (AMCs) including the UTI Asset Management Company Pvt. Ltd., the SBI Funds Management Pvt. Ltd. and the LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company Ltd.

Mumbai: SBI Funds Management Pvt Ltd has registered initial documents with India’s market supervisory body in order to launch an equity fund, which would invest in domestic plus foreign stocks and mutual funds.

In its offer document, the fund house stated that SBI Emerging International Opportunities Fund will invest around 65 percent of the assets in equities and abroad mutual funds units, and the remaining in debt and money market instruments.

Indian regulations permit fund companies to invest around $300 million in markets out of the country.

Mumbai: The rising nature of the stock market and availability of liquidity in the banking industry has helped the Assets Under Management (AUM) to achieve a new peak of Rs 5.6 lakh crore after climbing 16.7% in October.

This is, for the first time, when AUMs has crossed the Rs 5 lakh crore-mark.

Due to the fear of a sharp correction, capitalists have withdrawn funds from equity schemes when the benchmark indices were achieving new peaks to only reinvest that in liquid as well as liquid plus plans.

The Association of Mutual funds in India (Amfi) said that the asset under management (AUM) of the MF industry stood at Rs 5,56,729.69 crore, which showed an increase of about Rs 79,740.69 crore.

The new government workers, who joined service after January 1, 2004, have now been permitted to invest around 15% of their pension funds in equities and MFs.

The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has granted the fund managers of new pension scheme (NPS) to invest around 5% straightly in equities and an extra 10% in mutual fund schemes.

The PFRDA has chosen three fund managers including Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), State Bank of India (SBI) and UTI Asset Management Company, n order to ease seamless fund relocation and in the selection of fund managers.

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS has announced that the bank has dropped plans to acquire mutual fund management business in India from the British group Standard Chartered.

UBS said in a statement, “Following the expiry of the sale and purchase agreement that it executed in January this year with Standard Chartered Bank, both the entities have decided not to continue negotiations regarding the acquisition of Standard Chartered’s mutual funds management business in India.”

India’s Market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to waive entry load for direct applications for mutual fund investments. The progress follows a proposal made by SEBI a few months back to waive entry loads on direct investors in mutual funds.

The mutual fund investors will be exempted from payment of entry fee on applications which are received through the Internet, directly submitted to AMCs’ or to the collection centre/investor services centers that are not routed through any distributor, agent or broker, SEBI stated in a release.

UTI Asset Management, India's second-largest mutual fund firm, has filed papers for its initial public offer for 4.85 crore equity shares with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

The IPO is estimated to raise close to Rs 2,000 crore (about $500 million). Its four sponsors and the selling shareholders are State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda.

Reliance Capital AMC has managed to collect over Rs 5600 crore through Reliance Natural Resources Fund offer. The fund focused on natural resources got a better than expected response even after a low investor confidence due to recent stock market crash. Reliance Natural Resources fund can invest 70 -100 percent of total funds in domestic stocks. An investment of up-to 30% can be made in global securities as well.

The New Fund Offer received a good response from investors as Energy sector looks promising over a period of 2 – 4 years. Reliance Mutual fund CEO Mr. Vikrant Gugnani said that the allotment process will be finished by the end of February. Reliance Mutual fund has over Rs. 77,000 crore in Assets under management as per the figures of January this year.

Capital market controller Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has directed all fund houses to raise the time limit they spend on risk warnings to investors in their radio as well as television ads.

SEBI has asked them that the time for display and voice over to the standard warning be increased to five seconds in place of the current rapid fire manner.

In a circular, regulator said funds that presently take just two seconds to direct customers that “Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks, read the offer document carefully before investing” must now be exhibited and read out for at least five seconds.

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company has entered into a distribution tie-up with banking major Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC).

Under the agreement, OBC will offer the entire bouquet of Kotak Mutual Fund’s products across the bank’s branches.

Mr. Sandesh Kirkire, Chief Executive Officer, Kotak Mahindra AMC and Mr. Alok Kumar Misra, Chairman and Managing Director, OBC has signed the MOU.

Finally, Infrastructure Development Finance Co Ltd (IDFC) has been announced as the winner for adopting Standard Chartered’s mutual fund business in India.

The decision in favor of IDFC comes out after a long drawn-out bidding process.

In an all-cash deal, IDFC will pay Rs 830 crore ($205 million) to get hold of the asset management business of Standard Chartered. This amounts to 5.67% of the total assets under management of Rs 14,141 crore of StanChart’s AMC at the end of February 2008.
 

United Bank of India (UBI) has decided to join hands with Kotak Mahindra for selling mutual fund schemes.

The asset management companies including HDFC, UTI, Franklin Templeton, Reliance and ICICI Prudential are already selling UBI’s mutual fund schemes across the country.

Swapan Biswas, General Manager, (Marketing and New Initiatives) stated, “The tie up with Kotak Mahindra has been finalised and we will sign an MoU with them within two-three weeks. We will ink similar deals with four other companies shortly.”

Export Development Canada (EDC) is investing US$ 50 million in the proposed US$ 1 billion infrastructure fund in India to provide Canadian companies with new opportunities to participate in major projects in the booming Indian market.

The fund will be managed by IDFC Project Equity Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infrastructure Development Finance Company Ltd (IDFC).

Mumbai-based, IDFC provides project finance and investment banking services for infrastructure initiatives in financial markets; asset management; project development; and advisory services.

One of India’s leading mutual funds, DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund has launched a fund “DSP Merrill Lynch Fixed Maturity Plan” (12 ½ Months Series 1) in India market.

The newly launched fund will be a close-ended income schemes, with maturity profile of 12½ months.

The primary investment objective of the schemes is to seek capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio of debt and money market securities.

It is envisaged that the portfolio will display a maturity profile that is generally in line with the Term of the scheme. Both funds will invest can invest up to 100% in debt instruments and up to 100% in money market.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has finally scrapped loads (entry as well as exit) charged by mutual funds on bonus units and units allotted on reinvestment of dividend, with effect from April 1.  

The move is based on recommendations from AMFI’s Working Group on Standardization of Key Operational Areas.

An entry load is charged when an investor enters a mutual fund scheme. For redemptions made thereafter, investors are charged an exit load by the fund house.  However, the fund manager sometimes converts earnings from the scheme into units and distributes them as bonus units to the investors.  These bonus units are then charged entry load and exit load.

SBI Mutual Funds Management has finally filed its initial papers with India's market regulator for launching a dedicated scheme for the real estate and related sector.

The objective of Magnum Sector Funds Umbrella (MSFU) Real Estate Equity Fund is to provide investors opportunities for long-term growth in capital through an active management of investments in equity and equity-related instruments (including derivatives) of companies in the realty and similar sectors and in debt and money market instruments.  

The open-ended scheme will be available in Retail and Institutional Plan with growth and dividend options.

The minimum investment under the retail plan is Rs 5,000 while under the institutional plan, it is Rs 5 crore.  

Hindalco Industries and Reliance Communication saw much action during February 2008 mutual fund portfolios.

Reliance Vision Fund (7,999,620 Shares), Reliance Equity Advantage Fund - Retail (2,058,649 shares), JM Arbitrage Advantage Fund (413,758 shares), picked up Hindalco Industries, whereas Templeton India Equity Income Fund (200,000 shares), DSP Canara Robeco Multicap (80,000 shares), Standard Chartered Enterprise Equity Fund (55,933 shares) sold the same.

Reliance Communication was favored by Reliance Equity Advantage Fund - Retail (3,391,204 shares), UTI Long Term Advantage Fund - Series I (510,000 shares), UTI India Lifestyle Fund (223,100 shares).

AIG Global Asset Management Company (India) has finally launched “AIG World Gold Fund” – an open ended Fund Scheme, which will invest in companies engaged in extracting, processing and marketing of gold.

The primary investment objective of the Scheme is to provide long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in units of AIG PB Equity Fund Gold based in Zurich, which invests primarily in shares of gold mines worldwide with major investments in Canada.

The scheme will offer growth option and dividend option. The dividend option offers dividend payout and dividend reinvestment facilities.

Reliance Mutual Fund, owned by the Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Capital, has achieved the coveted milestone by notching up Rs 1 lakh crore of assets under its management this April.

Reliance Mutual Fund is the first mutual fund in India to cross this mark. The recent turmoil in the market has not affected the company’s fund mobilization capability.

On April 30, the total assets under management (AUM) of the fund was Rs 1,00,812 crore, including Rs 34,000 crore in equity schemes and Rs 66,800 crore in debt funds (liquid and fixed maturity plans).

Indian Bank has informed that it has inked an agreement with Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Reliance Capital Asset Management Ltd, to act as a Corporate Agent to sell the Mutual Fund products of Reliance Mutual Fund.

Under the Agreement, branches of Indian Bank will sell Mutual Fund products of Reliance Mutual Fund.

The Agreement was signed on April 30, 2008 at Chennai by M S Sundara Rajan, Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Bank and Vikrant Gugnani, CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund, in the presence of A Subramanian, Executive Director of the Bank.

Edelweiss Capital, one of the leading financial services company, has received the final regulatory approval from the market regulator, Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi), to start its mutual fund business.

The registration has been granted to Edelweiss Mutual Fund and approval has been granted for Edelweiss Asset Management, to act as investment manager to Edelweiss Mutual Fund.

Lotus India Asset Management Company (Lotus India AMC), has launched Lotus India Banking Fund, an Open-Ended Banking Sector Fund in the Indian market.

The investment objective of the Scheme is to generate long-term capital growth from a portfolio of equity and equity-related securities of companies engaged in the business of banking and financial services.

Bajaj Finserve, Rahul Bajaj's new firm, will be listed on the bourses on Monday (May 26, 2008). Bajaj Finserve comprises of financial services and wind farm businesses of Bajaj Auto and has a significant presence in insurance, consumer finance and distribution space.

Apart for this, it has been learnt that Bajaj Finserve is mulling an entry into the mutual fund business, for which Bajaj group is in talks with Allianz group.

In the proposed asset management company (AMC) venture, the Allianz group will pick up a majority 51 per cent stake while three unnamed banks will pick up to 3 percent stake each. The balance 40 percent stake will be held by Bajaj Finserve.

Birla Sunlife Insurance, has launched a new insurance product christened Platinum Plus, which offers Guaranteed Maturity Unit Price to its policy holders.

According to the company, Birla Sun Life Insurance Platinum Plus is a short pay, medium-term unit linked insurance plan, which aims to reduce the investment risk and optimize the returns.

The main objective of Platinum Plus Fund I is to optimize the participation in an actively managed well-diversified equity portfolio of fundamentally strong blue chip companies while using the debt instruments and derivatives to lock-in capital appreciations.

Geojit Financial Services has informed that it has entered into an agreement with UTI Mutual Fund. Under the deal, Geojit Financial Services will offer UTI Retirement Benefit Pension Fund to its employees as a retirement solution.

As per the agreement, every month employees will contribute a minimum amount of Rs 500/- towards

UTI-Retirement Benefit Pension Fund up to the age of 55 years so as to enable them to receive pension in the form of periodical income / cashflow after they reach the age of 58 years.

Leading asset management company DSP Merrill Lynch Fund Managers and South Indian Bank have entered into a strategic partnership for distribution of products.

Under the agreement, South Indian Bank will distribute DSP Merrill Lynch Mutual Fund schemes through its selected branches spread across the country.

Presently, South Indian Bank has got 503 branches and 229 ATMs across 23 states.

According to market experts, the strong presence of SIB in South India would make distribution of MF more effective in the Southern cities. The technological advancement of SIB has also been considered as added boon to its retail and corporate customers for direct investment in MF through net banking.

HDFC Asset Management Co (HDFC AMC) has informed that it has made an investment worth US$ 55 million in Ansal Hi-Tech Townships, a subsidiary of the New Delhi-based property developer, Ansal Properties & Infrastructure (API), for a minority stake in the project.

Ansal Hi-Tech Townships, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), is building a 2,500- acre modern township with a developable area of 75 million sq ft in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region.

Presently, the project is in the land acquisition stage and is expected to be completed in the next 6-7 years. Ansal is expecting a turnover of Rs 26,000 crore from the project and expects to invest over Rs 12,000 crore in the project.

DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management has announced the launch of its close-ended income scheme, DBS Chola Fixed Maturity Plan-Series 9 (13 months plan).  

The fund is a close ended income scheme with an objective to generate regular returns and capital appreciation.

The fund would offer redemption facility on the maturity date without the payment of any load. Redemptions before the maturity date will be subject to 2 % exit load.

The new fund offer opens for subscription on June 18th, 2008 and will close for subscription on 26th June, 2008.

Bharti AXA Investment Managers will launch its two fixed income funds christened, Bharti AXA Liquid Fund and Bharti AXA Treasury Plus on July 9, 2008.

The funds will be open for initial subscription till July 14.

This is the first offering from Bharti AXA, which is a joint venture between AXA Investment Managers, AXA Asia Pacific Holdings, and Bharti Ventures.

Bharti AXA Treasury Plus does not have an entry load but an exit load of 0.25 per cent if the investment is redeemed within seven days of allotment. While Bharti AXA Liquid Fund has neither entry load nor exit load.

State-run Union Bank of India, (UBI) has entered into an agreement with financial service company, KBC Asset Management NV, to form a joint venture asset management company in India.

KBC asset management NV is a wholly-owned subsidiary of KBC group of Belgium and has strong presence in central eastern Europe and Belgium.

As per the deal, Union Bank will hold 51% stake in the joint venture company, while the remaining 49% will be held by KBC.

Principal Mutual Fund and Bajaj Allianz Financial Distributors have announced their alliance for distribution of Principal Mutual Fund's products.

Both companies did not divulge the financial details of their collaboration.

Commenting on the tie up, Mr. Sudipto Roy, Business Head of Principal Mutual Fund stated, “this partnership will help us enhance the accessibility of our products across the country. Distribution is crucial to the growth of mutual funds in the country.”

In order to provide holistic advice to customers, Bajaj Allianz working with its agency network to train a growing number of agents to be AMFI-certified.

State Bank of India Mutual Fund has declared a dividend of 20 per cent under the dividend option of Magnum COMMA Fund, an open-ended equity scheme.    

The company said in a release that all investor registered under the dividend option of the scheme as on July 25, 2008 will receive this dividend.

The NAV under the dividend plan of the scheme as on July 21, 2008 was Rs 16.39. The record date has been fixed at July 25, 2008.     

However after the payment of dividend, the net asset value (NAV) of the scheme/option would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy, if applicable.    

Magnum COMMA Fund was launched in June 2005. The last dividend announced by the scheme was of 15% in November 2006.

UTI-MNC Fund, an open-ended equity scheme, has declared tax-free dividend of 25% (Rs 2.50 per unit on face value of Rs10/-).

Pursuant to the payment of dividend, the NAV of the dividend option of the scheme would fall to the extent of payout and statutory levy if any. The record date for the dividend is July 28, 2008.

UTI-MNC Fund was launched in April 1998. The objective of the scheme is to predominantly invest in equities and equity related instruments of Multinational Corporations and other liquid stocks.

IDBI Capital Market Services, a subsidiary of IDBI Bank, plans to setup a credit information entity through a joint venture with credit rating agency CARE.

The new entity, which would also be a subsidiary of IDBI Bank, will be setup with a capital base of Rs 2 crore and both firms will hold 50% equity stake in it. The bank is presently waiting for the RBI approval to begin operations.

Apart from this, the bank is also planning to venture into the mutual fund business either alone or through a joint venture.

OptiMix division of the ING Investment Management  (India) Pvt. Ltd has launched India’s first multi-manager global commodity equity fund christened ‘ING Optimix Global Commodities’ in the Indian market.

Under the multi-manager concept, the fund will invest in the global commodity funds managed by some world renowned global asset management houses like Credit Suisse, First State Investment, JP Morgan, Martin Currie, Societe Generale and Investec.

HSBC Mutual Fund has informed that it has raised Rs 108 crore through HSBC Fixed Term Series 61 during its initial offer period. HSBC Fixed Term Series 61 is a close-ended income scheme. The issue opened for subscription on 17 July and closed on 23 July 2008.

The investment objective of the scheme is to seek decent returns by investing in a portfolio of fixed income instruments normally maturing in line with the time profile of the plan. The scheme may invest up to 100% in money market instruments including CBLO and reverse repo.

Fidelity Asset Management Company, the Indian unit of Fidelity International, has announced the launch of its first Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP) named 'Fidelity Fixed Maturity, Series 1 - Plan A' with duration of 370 days from the date of allotment of units. This scheme is a close-ended debt scheme with an objective to generate reasonable returns and reduce interest rate volatility primarily through investment in money market and short term debt instruments with a maturity profile generally in line with the Plan's duration.

DBS Chola MF has announced the launch of DBS Chola Fixed Maturity Plan Series 11 (13 months) in the Indian market.

The fund is a close ended income scheme with an objective to generate regular returns and capital appreciation by investing in debt (including securitized debt), Government and Money Market securities maturing in line with time profile of the respective plans.

The Benchmark for the fund will be Crisil Short Term Fund Index.  

The minimum investment amount will be Rs 10,000 and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter. For the institutional plan, the minimum application amount is Rs 1 crore and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter.

Principal Mutual Fund (formerly known as IDBI-Principal Mutual Fund) has entered into an alliance with The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank for distribution of its products through the bank’s branch network.

Over the years, Principal Mutual Fund has developed a strong expertise in the bancassurance space by working closely with its Channel Partners, and its look forward to sharing these learning skills and best practices with The Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank.

The alliance will help bank to distribute world-class products and also enable it to serve its customers better.

Taurus Mutual Fund, one of the oldest mutual funds, has entered into a product distribution tie up with Bajaj Allianz Financial Distributors Limited (BAFDL).

Under this agreement, Bajaj Allianz would distribute all products of Taurus fund through its 5500 strong agency force. Further the company would also employ three lakh existing insurance agents in this partnership.

The Taurus Asset Management Company Ltd, incorporated in 1994, has at present around Rs 398 crore of assets under management and investor base of approximately 1.65 lakh.

Principal Mutual Fund has made announcement that the company has inked an alliance deal http://www.topnews.in/files/Principal-Mutual-funds.jpg " alt="Principal Mutual Fund Joins Hands With United Bank Of India" title="Principal Mutual Fund Joins Hands With United Bank Of India" width="103" height="93" align="left" />with United Bank of India, a leading public sector bank, for distribution of its products through the bank’s branch network.

Principal Mutual Fund (MF) has informed that the company has linked up with India’s leading public sector lender, United Bank of India for distribution of its products through the bank`s branch network.

Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company has rolled out a commodity focused fund in the Indian market.

This will be the first commodity-focused fund from Birla Sun Life AMC. The primary investment objective of the scheme is to provide long term capital appreciation by investing in securities of domestic and overseas commodity firms.

Private sector insurer Aviva Life Insurance has launched ‘IndiaBond’, a single premium, endowment plan with guaranteed maturity benefits to provide prosperity and peace of mind to its policyholders.

The plan offers a compounded return of 7% per annum on maturity, depending upon the policy term and the Single Premium amount.

Principal Mutual Fund has launched the ‘Principal Emerging Bluechip Fund’, in the Indian market.

The fund is an open ended equity scheme with primary objective to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in equity and equity related instruments of mid cap and small cap companies.

The fund is open for subscription from September 22, 2008 till October 10, 2008

For the purpose of maintaining liquidity or tap market opportunities the fund’s portfolio may also include large cap stocks. The Scheme will offer Growth Option and Dividend Option.

New York, Sept. 26 : US federal regulators have seized assets of Washington Mutual, the giant lender, and sold some of it in a bid to arrest the meltdown on Wall Street.

Regulators brokered an emergency sale of virtually all of Washington Mutual — the nation’s largest savings and loan, with $307 billion in assets — to J P Morgan Chase, reports the New York Times.

The move came as lawmakers were stalemated over the passage of a 700 billion dollar bailout fund meant to help ailing banks, and removes one of America’s most troubled banks from the financial landscape while mitigating another potentially huge taxpayer bill for the rescue of another failing institution.

Shareholders and some bondholders will be wiped out.

UTI Mutual Fund is all set to open around 200 branches across the country by March, next fiscal.

The company aims to further expand its distribution network from 97 UTI Financial centers to 200 centers covering around 422 districts.

According to the company, it will open new UTI Financial Centre in Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Jammu, Kathua, Kupwara, Kargil, Ladakh, Poonch, Pulwama, Rajouri, Srinagar and Udhampur, to focus on service sector in Jammu and Kashmir.

UTI Mutual Fund¸ the country's oldest fund, has launched ‘UTI Fixed Income Interval Fund Series II Quarterly Interval Plan VII’ in the Indian market.

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

The scheme will have investment up to 10-100% in money market instruments and offers two plans i.e. retail and institutional plan along with growth and dividend options.

The minimum investment amount under retail plan will be Rs 10, 000 and in multiples of Re 1 thereafter. For the institutional plan, the minimum application amount is Rs 1 crore and in multiples of Re. 1 thereafter.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) asked the Life Insurance Council to revise its decision regarding group covers on mutual fund (MFs) products. The Life Insurance Council is a self-regulatory body of insurers to represent the insurance firms. The regulatory body described the decision as very injudicious and unfair. The Chairman of Association of Mutual Funds in India, A P Kurian termed the decision as unilateral and demanded its early revision. It is recalled that some life insurance companies have ended the system of bundling on a host of financial products.

The liquidity crunch can increase due to high demand of cash for Dussera and the auction of government securities worth Rs 17,000-crore. The banks have already cut the lending and MFs are interested to access overnight funds from RBI like the other banks. 

Various funds houses also discussed the situation and met with the deputy governors of the Reserve Bank.

A CEO of a leading fund house said that fund houses should be allowed to raise money through repo transactions with banks and financial institutions. 

Despite of tight liquidity conditions, Taurus Mutual Fund, one of the oldest mutual funds in the country has successfully collected over Rs 100 crore through its first one month Fixed Maturity Plan (FMP) issue.

The AMC claims that the issue managed to attract funds largely due to the relationship it has built with the investors. Taurus's FMP issue received good response between September 23 and 25. 

HSBC Mutual Fund, one of the premier asset management companies in India has launched ‘Fixed Term Series 68’, a close-ended income fund in the Indian market. 

The face value of the fund is Rs 10 per unit and the new fund offer period (NFO) for subscription will be from 6 October to 13 October 2008. 

The benchmark index of the scheme is Crisil Liquid Fund Index, which will mature in 3 months from the date of allotment. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

A majority of the debt fund schemes have single industry exposure in India which is a cause for concern for multidimensional investments. Single company or segment exposure of funds can be affected by redemption pressures. It is said by the rating agency, Crisil in its recent release.  

India's oldest mutual fund, UTI Asset Management Company (UTI AMC) is in advanced stages of discussions to divest 26 per cent to a strategic partner. The potential buyers are the US firm T Rowe Price, Shinsei Bank of Japan and two European firms. The buyer is expected to pay between Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 1,800 crore, which would value the AMC at between Rs 6,000 crore and Rs 7,500 crore.

Assets under management (AUMs) of Indian mutual funds have shown an increase of 4 per cent in December 2008. AUM had been declining since last three months according to the data released by the AMFI. The growth is caused following good performance of income funds. AUM of the mutual fund industry stands at Rs 4,18,336 crore as on December end as compared to Rs 4,02,029 crore in November 2008.

Fidelity International has announced the launch of its Fidelity Wealth Builder Fund, an open ended fund of funds scheme offering asset allocation options with three Plans, in the Indian market.

The investment objective of the fund is to generate reasonable returns based on the Plan selected with minimum and maximum asset allocation between debt and equity.

The company stated in a press release that the fund manager will use a two-tier investment approach i. e. asset allocation and fund selection to invest in Fidelity's funds.

The average asset under management (AUM) of country's mutual fund industry increased 8.68% from Rs 4,609,489.97 million to Rs 5,009,733.79 million for the month ended Feb 28, 2009.

The data about 35 fund houses published by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) shows that twenty three fund houses reported growth while 12 reported fall in their assets during the reporting period.

Sebi seeking public comments on the same

The deadline for sending suggestions on variable entry load or fee for mutual fund agents is drawing closer and the responses so far are skewed toward one side.

Earlier, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), the country's capital markets regulator, had mooted a proposal to allow mutual fund investors to mention the commission or fee that they would like to pay the advisor or agent, thus trying to bring transparency.

Bharti AXA Mutual Fund, one of the leading mutual fund house, has notified that it has collected Rs 20 crore via Bharti AXA Regular Return Fund, an open-ended income scheme during their initial offer period from 28 January to 26 February 2009.

The scheme aims to generate regular income through investments in fixed income securities and also to generate long term capital appreciation by investing a portion in equity and equity related instruments.

The performance of the scheme will be benchmarked against CRISIL MIP Blended Index.

With Bharti AXA Investment Managers failing to make much of an impression in the market, Bharti Enterprises is working its way out of the mutual fund joint venture with the French biggie AXA, almost after a year of the registering of the asset management company. The fund, which started its operations in July 2008, had assets under management of Rs 186 crore as of February 2009.

The Bharti decision to exit Bharti AXA Investment Managers - in which Bharti Ventures has a 25 percent stake, while AXA Investment Managers Asia Holdings holds the remaining 75 percent - will not affect its affiliation with AXA in the sphere of life insurance and general insurance.

The Macquarie-SBI Infrastructure Fund (MSIF) is the newly-announced joint venture of India's biggest lender State Bank of India (SBI) and the largest Australian investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd., which has raised $1 billion for investment in ports and power plants in India.

The SBI-Macquarie joint venture MSIF also boasts of the participation of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, as a minority shareholder and keystone investor.

Bank of Rajasthan, one of the oldest, fastest growing, technology driven and customer friendly private sector bank, has informed that it has tied up an alliance with DBS Cholamandalam Asset Management Ltd, to qualitatively enhance its reach in the category of mutual fund investors across the country.

According to a senior official, the tie-up is intended to fulfill the investment needs of Bank of Rajasthan customers, by helping them to reach their financial goals.

Edelweiss Asset Management Limited, the Investment Manager to Edelweiss Mutual Fund, has announced the launch of 'Edelweiss Diversified Growth Equity (E. D. G. E.) Fund' in the domestic market.

Edelweiss claims that this is the first diversified equity fund launched by the company and has a number of unique features to offer - some of which are industry firsts.

The Fund offers three investor-friendly plans namely, Plan A, Plan B and Plan C with varying entry, exit loads and expense ratios, to cater to various investor segments.

The markets showed immense strength on the back of more than 9% growth in March ending on a positive note gaining as much as 17.46% on Sensex & 15% on Nifty during the April month.

The rally was driven by strong FII inflows in the month of April coupled with quarterly & yearly results which were better than expected. Firm Global markets were amongst the other driving factors behind the huge rally which also saw Midcaps gaining 18.86% & Small caps gaining 21.38% both outperforming the benchmark indices.

Sector Analysis

Canara Robeco Mutual Fund, a Joint Venture between Canara Bank and Robeco Group has announced the launch of Canara Robeco Dynamic Bond Fund, which is an open-ended debt Fund.  

The Fund aims to seek and generate income from a portfolio of debt and money market securities.  

The company will offer two plans like retail and institutional plan with growth, growth option will have automatic repurchase option. While, dividend option will further offers dividend payout and dividend reinvestment facility.  

After ING New Zealand froze its Diversified Yield Fund (DYF) and Regular Income Fund (RIF) in March 2008, nearly 8000 investors were left with no option to access $521 million.

It should be noted that many of these investors had invested their money into funds after they were advised to do so by ANZ investment advisers.

As of now, these investors are protesting to get their money back and in order to do so they have taken their procession to streets.

In the month of April the Super Fund posted an investment return of nearly 9%, enhancing its coffers by $1 billion.

From April 1 to May 5 the unaudited performance achieved, puts forward a $1.75 billion jump from the fund's lowest balance in mid-March.

Now the entire fund is up to $12.5 billion, before regaining its level of last August. Thus it has approximately $2 billion more to recover.

Super Fund chief executive Adrian Orr expresses that the result illustrates the futility of attempting to pick and act on short-term signals.

Washington, May 15 : The analysis of a termite entombed for 100 million years in an ancient piece of amber has revealed the oldest example of "mutualism" ever discovered between an animal and microorganism, namely protozoa.

The findings were made by George Poinar, an Oregon State University researcher and international expert on life forms found in amber.

Reliance Mutual Fund, promoted by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADAG) group, has decided to launch an `Islamic fund' in Malaysia.

For the purpose, the company would set up a subsidiary and will launch an Islamic fund soon in the market.

A company official, who was familiar with the latest development informed that the objective of such funds is to make hundreds of rich and religious Muslim people invest their money, who otherwise do not put money in interest-yielding instruments or non-Sharia compliant stocks.

UTI Mutual Fund, one of the top performing mutual fund investment company in India managed by UTI Asset Management Company Private Limited, has announced a bonus to its investors, under its 'UTI Top 100 Fund' scheme.  

The bonus has been declared in the ratio of 1 unit for every 1 unit held of face value of Rs 10 each, under dividend and growth option.

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company, one of India’s leading mutual fund houses, has entered into a distribution tie-up with Bank of Baroda.

Under the agreement, Bank of Baroda will offer the entire bouquet of Kotak Mutual Fund products from the bank’s branches.

Kotak AMC claims that with this tie-up, customers will gain easy access to company’s various schemes at the branches where they do their banking transactions. Therefore, the tie-up would help both partners in leveraging synergies and creating value for customers.

Leading mortgage financer, LIC Housing Finance plans to sell 19.3% of its stake in LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company (LIC MF AMC) to Japan's Nomura for about Rs 138 crore (US$29mn).

The deal is considered as a part of company's strategy to sell its 35% stake in LIC MF AMC to Nomura by stakeholders.

Presently, LIC Housing holds 39.3% stake in LIC Mutual Fund AMC. Post offloading, the company will hold 20% stake in it, while the balance stake will remain with Nomura.

Birla Sun Life Mutual fund (BSLMF), a joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and Sun Life Financial, has announced the introduction of internet based systematic investment plan (iSIP).

The company authorities said that iSIP is a mode of transaction facility through which investors can make purchases, renew their SIP and also have the option to cancel it online.

The sources said that this newly launched service will not only allow investors to start their SIP investments online but it will also offer paper less management of SIPs.

With the aim to enter Indian market, Bank Sarasin & Co Ltd, a leading Swiss private bank headquartered in Basel, has decided to establish offices in Mumbai and Delhi.

The Sarasin Group will be known in the market as Sarasin-Alpen (India) Private Limited, which will operate as a Non Fund Based Non Banking Financial Company (NF-NBFC).

The sources said that the new operation will offer financial advisory and consultancy services to wealthy private clients in India and distribute third-party products such as mutual funds.

The new rules pertaining to Mutual Funds by the market regulator, the Security and Exchange Board of India may lead to tax losses, besides affecting the tax system. The regulator recently announced new rules for MFs, including the abolition of entry loads in all mutual fund (MF) schemes and change in fee structure.

The world's largest private equity (PE) investment firm, Carlyle Group, has said that it will spend a substantial amount raised from fourth Asian growth capital fund, in Indian and Chinese companies.

The fund, Carlyle Asia Growth Partners IV (CAGP IV), managed to raise $1.04 billion in only 14 months, despite unfavorable conditions of the financial market. Investors from all corners of globe have shown interest in the fund, and the firm would now lay special focus on domestic consumption and outsourcing.

Market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has decided to scrap entry load on all mutual fund schemes from August 1 onwards. The entry load is the amount paid by AMCs - from total paid amount in the scheme - as marketing and distribution expenses.

The Indian market watchdog, through its June 30 circular, has also directed AMCs to pay upfront commission directly to the distributors. According to new norms, SEBI said AMCs are required to have a maximum of 1% of the exit load in a different account. The AMCs are free to pay commissions to the distributor from the prescribed amount.

Reliance MF has emerged as the top gainer and the largest fund house in the country in June, raising funds worth Rs 5,000 crore and increasing assets under management (AUM) to Rs 1,08,332.36 crore. The MF industry reported five per cent increase in its average assets under management with its AUM growing by Rs 31,863.31 crore.

The combined average AUM of the 35 fund houses was Rs 6,37,609.41 crore in May, which stood at Rs 6,70,993.13 crore in June, according to the figures released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

Japan based asset management company, Nomura has acquired 35 per cent stake worth Rs 308 crore in LIC Mutual Fund, becoming a strategic partner of LICMF Trustee and LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company Limited (LICMF AMC).

LIC sold stake through fresh issue of equity and secondary sale. LIC and LIC Housing Finance will hold 45 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in the AMC as per agreement. The move will enable LIC to take advantage of Nomura's expertise in the area of equity management and capital generation.

Market regulator, the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), while simplifying the formats of documents and Memorandum of key schemes, has restrained fund houses from charging varying loads based on the value of investment.

However, Fund houses may charge the differential exit load up to 7 per cent by a fair manner without affecting existing unit holder. SEBI has asked for parity among all unit holders while charging loads based on the amount of subscription.

US-based T Rowe Price has decided to acquire a 26 per cent stake in UTI Asset Management Company (AMC) for around Rs 650 crore.

The sale follows an earlier attempt by UTI AMC which remained unsuccessful last year due to low valuations. The latest deal values the fund house at around Rs 2600 crore.

Under the proposed deal, UTI MF's four stake holders, which include SBI, LIC, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank, would sell 6.25 per cent each to T Rowe Price.

TVS Shriram Growth Fund I, a domestic fund, sponsored by TVS Group and Shriram Group, has acquired more than 18 lakh shares or 25 per cent in Landmark Ltd, a subsidiary of the Tata group firm Trent Limited, for Rs 65 crore.

The deal values Landmark at Rs 260 crore.

Under the arrangement, Trent will sell 14.03 lakh shares to TVS Shriram for Rs 50 crore and will utilize the funds to subscribe to fresh shares in Landmark. In addition, TVS Shriram will be directly issued 4.21 lakh shares for Rs 15 crore.

Kotak Mutual Fund, one of the leading mutual funds in the country, has launched a new fund named as Kotak FMP 18M Series 2, a close ended debt scheme.

The new fund offer (NFO) price for the scheme is Rs 10 per unit, which will open for subscription from Nov. 5, 2009. The fund will close subscription on Nov. 18, 2009.

The minimum application amount is Rs 5,000 and in multiples of Rs 10, and it offers both growth and dividend payout option.

Securities and Exchange Board of India announced on Friday the stockbrokers who are registered will now be allowed to sell mutual funds and undertake all required transactions on behalf of their clients post proper authorization, a move which could widen the mutual funds distribution network even further.

"The infrastructure that already exists for the secondary market transaction through the stock exchanges with its reach over 1,500 towns and cities, through over two lakh stock exchange terminals can be used for facilitating transactions in mutual fund schemes", the SEBI circular detailing the development read.

The mutual fund industry's assets declined 4.1% or Rs 32,853.79 crore during January as the banks pulled out following a directive from the Reserve Bank of India.

The industry's average asset under management (AUM) is at 7,61,632.26 crore at the end of January, according to the data released by the Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI). This is second month in a row to record a drop in AUM for the industry.