MUMBAI, April 7: Alliance Capital Mutual Fund, one of the more aggressive private sector mutual funds, has targeted mobilisations worth Rs 300 crore in 1998-99. This is almost 87.50 per cent higher than the Rs 160-170 crore worth of gross sales notched by it through schemes launched in 1997-98."We wish to raise the growth of our assets to levels we would be proud of and possess a strong and flourishing mutual fund business. We will set aggressive targets because weak targets do not achieve the growth and prospects envisaged," said president and country head of Alliance Capital Asset Management Pvt Ltd Ajai Kaul.
The decision to set higher targets stems from a sound performance in the fiscal just gone by. Alliance '95, an open-ended balanced fund from its stable with 60 per cent invested in equity and 40 per cent in debt, has provided an annualised return of 62.10 per cent in 1997-98 and a return of 19.76 per cent since its inception. The net asset value (NAV) of the scheme stood at Rs 13.49 in December1997, rising to Rs 16.16 on April 4, 1998.
Kaul says that the scheme has outperformed the benchmark specified by the mutual fund which comprises 60 per cent of the BSE-200 index and 40 per cent of debt instruments. The self-developed benchmark provides an annualised return of 14.45 per cent and, hence, Alliance '95 has outperformed the benchmark by almost 48 per cent.
The scheme has performed better than indices like the BSE-100 Index and the popular BSE Sensex. The BSE 30-share index logged returns of 15.8 per cent while BSE-100 reported returns of 15.9 per cent last fiscal.
Alliance Liquid Income, an open-ended 100 per cent debt fund launched in March 1997, has given annualised returns of 13.56 per cent. The current NAV of the scheme is Rs 10.08 for the income option and Rs 11.46 for the growth option.
Alliance Capital Tax Relief 1996, an equity-linked savings scheme, provided an annualised return of 68.82 per cent in 1997-98 and an annualised return of 37 per cent since its inception. Currently,this scheme is the best performing scheme in this category in the mutual fund industry. Its NAV was Rs 17.79 as on March 31, 1998.
The scheme has beaten the BSE-200 Index by 53.86 per cent. The BSE-200 gave a return of only 14.96 last fiscal.
But what the fund needs to look at is its debt portfolio, as given the easing trend in interest rates it may prove increasingly difficult for the fund to maintain high yields on the debt portfolio. This would also mean that equity markets may become more attractive.
"On the back of such a performance there is no reason why the fund will not be able to meet the high targets set by us for the current fiscal," said Kaul.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
