ICICI Pru Indo Asia Equity Fund

Inline with many Mutual Fund houses that have brought out funds that aim to invest in equities outside of India, primarily in SE Asia and China, ICICI Prudential also has come out with an open-ended fund named ICICI Prudential Indo Asia Equity Fund.

The scheme endeavors to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in equity, equity related securities of companies, which are incorporated or have their area of primary activity, in the Asia pacific region. In the beginning the scheme will be investing in share classes of International Opportunity Fund - Asian equity fund and thereafter they may choose to make investment in listed shares, securities in Asia.

The fund manager shall broadly analyse the global and domestic economy, industry trends and business cycles. He will invest in companies that benefit from larger industry and sectoral trends, using bottom-up analysis, quality of management in terms of corporate governance, transparency in reporting, commitment to minority shareholders and a certain minimum size of the company before considering any company as a prospective investment.

Between 65% to 100% of the portfolio allocation will be in equities and equity-linked instruments. Debt will comprise 0% to 35% of the portfolio.

Highlights
Issue Opens: August 23, 2007
Issue Closes: September 21, 2007
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend payout and reinvestment.
Plans: Retail and Institutional
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000(retail) and Rs 5 crores (institutional)
Face Value: Rs 10
Entry Load: Entry load of 2.25% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores.
Exit Load: Exit load of 1% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores if redeemed before 6 months from the date of allotment.

The above load structure is applicable only for the retail plan. The fund would not charge any load for the institutional plan.

Benchmark Index: The benchmark would constitute 65% of S&P CNX Nifty and 35% of MSCI AC Far East Free ex - Japan Index.

This is a good scheme along with other similar finds that were launched for people to diversy their holdings outside of India and such funds gain popularity because of the liberalization where RBI allowed Indians to invest abroad to the extent of USD 100,000 per annum.