ABN AMRO Bank plans to launch its Money Market Fund in June. The fund will have an initial corpus of Rs 50 crore. It will be the first money market mutual fund from a bank. UTI and Kothari Pioneer have recently launched their money market funds. The latest NAV of UTI Money Market Fund is Rs 10.0176. The annualised yield of Kothari Money Market account since launch is around 11.75 per cent.

Ind Sagar to commence repurchase

Ind Sagar Indian Bank Mutual Fund has announced the commencement of repurchase in Ind Sagar from June 1, 1997. Ind Sagar, a growth scheme of Indian Bank Mutual Fund was launched in September 1991. It raised a corpus of Rs 20.88 crore from around 25,000 investors. The scheme has a ten year duration and is to be redeemed in 2001. The fund was listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange in November, 1994 at Rs 22 and currently trades at Rs 10.00 (May 6, 1997), which is at a discount of around 16 per cent to its NAV of Rs 11.92. There was no provision for repurchase in the offer document. The market price of Ind Sagar has jumped sharply just before the public announcement from Rs 5.70 on April 29 to the current level.

MMS '90 & MMPS '93 to go open-ended

SBI Mutual fund plans to convert its MMS '90 and MMPS '93 into open end funds. According to the offer document, MMS '90 is to be redeemed in December 1997. The latest NAV is Rs 12.31 while the market price is Rs 9.50. Thus, the discount works out to 23 per cent.

MMPS '93 was to be redeemed in February 1999. The latest NAV is Rs 12.81 while the repurchase price is Rs 12.25. The current market price is Rs 12.

Kothari Pioneer resumes repurchase

Kothari Pioneer Pension Plan has reopened for continuous sale and repurchase from April 29, 1997. The fund has a 100 per cent exposure to debt and aims at providing a 14 per cent return in the first year. The current NAV is Rs 10.10.

JM Liquid to pay 17 per cent

JM mutual fund has declared a 17 per cent payout in its JM Liquid Income Plan on March 31, 1997. The fund had earlier made a payout of 16 per cent in March 1996. Birla Mutual Fund has declared a payout of 8 per cent on April 30, 1997 in Birla Income Plus Dividend Plan. The fund had earlier made a payout of 16.5 per cent in October 1996. Escorts Mutual Fund has announced a maiden payout of 6.5 per cent in Escorts Income Bond.

UTI's growth scheme in May

UTI plans to launch a closed-end growth scheme in May. The fund will invest upto 95 per cent of its corpus in equity related instruments. This will be the first launch of a growth scheme since UTI launched Equity Opportunity Fund in May last year. UTI was able to collect around Rs 26.86 crore in Equity Opportunity Fund, making it the smallest equity fund under UTI's management.

GIC Suraksha listed on NSE

As per the offer document, GIC Suraksha '96 has been listed at the National Stock Exchange. While the latest market price (April 29) of Suraksha '96 (Monthly income option) was Rs 9.10, the market price of the growth option was Rs 9.6. GIC Mutual fund is also repurchasing Suraksha '96 ( income) units at Rs 10 and the Suraksha '96 (Growth) units at Rs 11.69.

DSP commences repurchase

DSP Merrill Lynch has commenced the continuous sale and repurchase of its open-end funds, viz., DSPML Bond Fund and DSPML Equity Fund.While the Bond fund will be sold and repurchased at the NAV (Rs 10.04 on April 30), the Equity fund will be available at a 3 per cent front load.

Sun F&C to launch equity scheme

Sun F &C, a 50:50 per cent joint venture between Sun Securities-a London-based NRI corporate body and F&C-one of the oldest investment management houses in the UK plans maiden mutual fund offering in India. The scheme, to be launched soon, will be an equity offering.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.