``The unsubscribed rights entitlement, if any, would be offered to new investors,'' he added. GIC AMC has an equity capital of Rs 20 crore and a preference share capital of Rs 18 crore. At present, GIC and its subsidiaries hold 49.5 per cent in the AMC, Soros Capital Management Company Inc. 40 per cent and GIC Housing Finance 10.5 per cent.

Among new schemes proposed to be launched in the near future are a pension fund, a unit-linked insurance plan, leave encashment funds and a perpetual income plan for senior citizens (with a guaranteed return of capital). The AMC has already got Sebi clearance for a Money Back Plan, which assures an annualreturn of 13.5 per cent for 7 years and the balance 5.5 per cent on redemption with capital appreciation.

The on-going GIC D'MAT scheme is targeting a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore over the next one year. Prabhu said nearly 15 per cent of the total market capitalisation of Rs 500,000 crore was with retail investors. ``This meant that mutual funds like GIC D'MAT had a Rs 40,000 crore market to tap,'' he added.

GIC D'MAT has introduced a novel barter system whereby investors having physical scrips can exchange them for units at the simple average market price of the scrip on 5 working days immediately preceding the closure of the initial offer. During the continuous offer period, the pricing of the shares would be on the basis of the simple average market price of a scrip in the preceding week.

Prabhu clarified that units would be issued to investors only after the company confirms the ownership of shares tendered as application money. However, the AMC will issue receipt of shares pending final allocation ofunits to investors. The scheme's investment portfolio would be restricted to 30 scrips at a given point of time and, to begin with it, would accept 71 scrips under the barter system. This list would be periodically reviewed to include or delete scrips depending on their floating stock, demat percentage and market capitalisation.