The chief of business development at BMF, NK Sharma, told The Financial Express that the proposal for takeover of the Apple AMC was awaiting Sebi clearance. With this takeover, BMF is expected to add assets worth Rs 60 crore under its management.

According to Sharma, BMF would be marketing the Apple schemes under the Birla brandname. "This will necessitate modification in the scheme's offer document and approval of its unitholders," he added.

The two schemes of Apple MF are Apple Goldshare, a close end growth scheme due for redemption in June 1999 and being converted into an open end fund, and Apple Platinum, an open end growth scheme having a mixed bag of debt and equities.

Sharma revealed that the two equity funds (Birla Advantage Fund and BirlaTaxplan), Birla Income Plus and Birla Cash Plus account for Rs 300 crore, Rs 1175 crore and Rs 125 crore of assets under management respectively. Now BMF has come tantalisingly close to SBI Mutual Fund which has assets worth Rs 1800 crore and is the second largest mutual fund of the country.

Sharma said the 50:50 joint ventures with Sun Life of Canada were ready and signed. These ventures are in the areas of stockbroking, asset management, financial services and distribution. The respective boards of these ventures are also being reconstituted.

As a result of the entry of Sun Life in the place of Capital International in the AMC, its paid-up capital has gone up to Rs 18 crore from Rs 15 crore earlier. Fresh shares have been issued to Sun Life to raise their stake in the AMC to 50 per cent. The current net worth of the AMC is now at Rs 23 crore, Sharma revealed.

BMF's liquid fund is also developing into a very solid product with the average corpus now at Rs 125 crore compared to Rs 40 crore in 1997 whenthe scheme was launched. Gross inflows into the fund since launch have crossed Rs 1500 crore, Sharma pointed out.

The fund has become a popular treasury management tool in the hands of corporates because of three innovative features, claimed Sharma. "We provide anytime cash, 24-hour redemption and payments in local cheques in 7 centres," he added.