Mumbai, Feb 20: Twentieth Century Mutual Fund plans to launch its maiden income scheme soon after the change in the ownership pattern of 20th Century Asset Management Corporation is formally effected.Speaking to The Financial Express, VR Deshpande, chief executive officer of the AMC, said that the scheme will be a pure vanilla debt scheme that will not assure any returns. Presently, the AMC is managing three growth funds and one balanced fund. The launch of this open ended debt scheme is aimed at expanding the family of products currently available from the fund. Deshpande said that the fund is not targeting a very large corpus initially nor have any specific set of investors been targeted.
The fund had conducted a postal ballot to obtain investor approval for the change in ownership in the AMC. Zurich Insurance has taken 74 per cent control in the AMC following its takeover of Kemper Corporation which was the original collaborator in the AMC. The ballot results showed that 91 per cent (in termsof numbers) of the unitholders approved the change. The trustees have also okayed the change. The results have been conveyed to Sebi and a final approval from the regulator is awaited.
Deshpande said thsaving products considering the lull in the equity markets. "In the future the stress will be more on debt", he said.
Subsequent to restructuring the proposed shareholding pattern will be such that Zurich has 74 per cent control and 20th Century has 26 per cent stake. After the restructuring, the networth of the AMC will increase from Rs 5 crore to Rs 27 crore.
Deshpande said that a rights issue is also on the cards later. "We are basically looking at strategic inputs from Zurich and enhanced capital base through this alliance" he added.
After restructuring, the name of the AMC as well as its board of directors will change. Although the new name has not been finalised, Deshpande said that it is likely to be changed to Zurich 20th century. This will be subject to approval by the registrar of companies.The change in the board of directors will reflect the new ownership pattern.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
