Return
to Story Page
To print: Select File and then Print from your
browser's menu
Parul Monga
Mumbai, Aug 25: The internet bug has caught up with the Unit Trust of India (UTI). In a bid to reach out to a part of its five crore unitholder base, the mutual fund behemoth has decided to set up its website. The site is expected to go live by the first week of September. The trust is currently deciding on the site address. These could be either Unit Trust of India.com or UTI.co.in.
``UTI has already got an approval for the former site address but has also applied to get an approval for the latter. This is because there are a number of unit trusts especially in Europe and thus the address could be quite confusing for an investor'', said a source at UTI.
According to a UTI source, the website will have a phased development programme because of the huge investor base. ``As the investor base is huge we should be ready to be able to handle the investors queries and thus the site will be developed in a phased manner,'' said the UTI source.
``In the first phase, the website would have information regarding the open-ended schemes of UTI and the close-ended schemes which are open for repurchase and sale. Information regarding the NAV of schemes since the day the respective schemes were launched (as and when the NAV was declared), the year of launch of schemes, the nature and type of schemes, the addresses of various offices, collection centres and investor servicing centres of UTI, information on the history of UTI, the background of UTI, the abridged accounts statement, would be available,'' said a source at UTI.
``In the absence of any specified accepted benchmark formula for calculating returns of schemes we will provide information only about the NAV and the extent to which the schemes have beaten the BSE Sensex,'' added the UTI source.
In the second phase of development of the website, information about all the schemes of UTI will be put on the net. In the third phase of the development of the site, UTI will put up an interactive site where the investor can interact with UTI, ask questions and get his queries replied from UTI. UTI expects that the investor will provide information to UTI about his age, income levels, family, investible funds and other demographic information on this interactive site.
In the fourth phase, UTI is planning to get into Electronic-Commerce and would even look at investing through this site. ``But this would take four to five years from now,'' said the UTI source.
The site is aimed at targeting broadly two groups of investors. UTI has divided the target audience into two broad categories, the individual and the institutional investor. The category of individual investors is further divided into NRIs and domestic investors and the second category is divided into domestic institutional investors like banks, financial Institutions, companies and the offshore institutional investors.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
------------------------------------------------------------