The three schemes will be launched in quick succession. ``The AMC is expecting approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) shortly,'' says Prem Khatri, vice-president, marketing, KPAMC.

Alliance Asset Management has also lined up its maiden equity scheme, named Alliance India Premier Growth Fund. The tentative date for the launch of the scheme is June 8.

KPIT Fund will be the first information-technology specific fund to be launched for the domestic market although it is learnt that Unit Trust of India has also filed its prospectus with SEBI for a banking and technology fund.

The IT fund will primarily invest in scrips of software and software training companies although some investment will also be made in hardware stocks. While software stocks have been touching newhighs everyday and are generally believed to be overvalued, officials at KPAMC believe that the infotech scrips have the potential to appreciate further.

``Software companies require very little investment upfront. India has a large trained manpower and very competitive advantage. Besides, demand for software is currently booming and is only expected to rise in the coming years,'' says Khatri. Optima and Vista are both balanced funds - the first of its kind from the Kothari AMC. While Optima will be a three-year closed-end fund, Vista will be an open-end fund with a mix of debt and equity instruments. Both these funds will not carry any entry or exit load.

``The idea is to make the funds flexible for moving in and out of equities, depending on the fund manager's perception,'' says Khatri. The AMC has not set any internal initial subscription target for the three funds and aims at attracting investments after building a track record.

Kothari Pioneer AMC is launching schemes with an equity orientationafter a gap of over three years. The last equity scheme from the Kothari stable, Prima Plus had come into market towards the end of 1994 although equity-linked saving schemes have been launched every year.

All the three previous equity schemes - Bluechip, Prima and Prima Plus are open-end. The AMC had initiated a massive restructuring exercise in 1996-97 and weeded out a number of stocks acquired through initial public offerings.

As a consequence, Bluechip emerged as the top performer in the open-end equity category with a return of 57 per cent while Prima Plus gave a return of 22.39 per cent. Prima was the only fund to generate a negative return of 6.16 per cent although the fund has now started showing signs of a turnaround as it has moved out of small holdings.

For Alliance, with an equity scheme joining the stable, the AMC will now have a complete family of funds. According to analysts, since the AMC now has a track record in managing equity portfolio (Alliance '95 and Alliance Taxsaver), the schememay witness good inflows.