Lotus India Infrastructure Fund

Just like most other AMCs in the recent, Lotus India Mutual Fund also has come out with a three-year close ended equity fund called Lotus India Infrastructure Fund that will focus on Infrastruture as the theme for its investment. This fund would automatically be converted into an open ended fund after the expiry of three years from the date of allotment.

The scheme endeavors to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio that is predominantly constituted of equity and equity related instruments of infrastructure companies.

The fund would adopt bottom up approach where the focus would be on specific company rather than on the industry in which that company operates or on the economy as a whole.

Between 65 to 100% of the portfolio allocation will be in equity and equity- linked instruments of companies engaged in infrastructure sector. Debt securities and money market instrument will comprise of 0 to 35% of the portfolio.

Snapshot:
Issue Opens: September 25, 2007
Issue Closes: October 24, 2007
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000
Face Value: Rs 10
Load: The fund would not charge any entry or exit load. But, on redemption before maturity of the scheme, investors will be charged balance proportionate unamortized issue expenses on the applicable NAV.
Benchmark Index: S&P CNX 500

Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund

Birla AMC has come out with an international equity fund which aims to invest in domestic and international stocks. This scheme is different from the recent launches of the other AMCs which still focus mostly on Asia or SE Asia.

This is an Open-Ended and Equity Diversified Scheme two plans namely Plan A and Plan B

Investment Objective
Plan A: The plan would exclusively invest in international stocks.

Plan B: The plan would invest in a blend of domestic and international stocks. It would have the flexibility to invest in stocks across different market capitalisation.

The international investments for both the plans would aim to create a portfolio that is diversified geographically, to take benefit of low correlation between various countries, and to create a portfolio of high quality - high growth stocks.

The domestic portion of the portfolio would provide a strong base to the scheme and the international portion would aim towards reducing the risk through diversification and contribute to returns.

Asset Allocation
Plan A: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to foreign equity and equity-related instruments. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Plan B: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to equity and equity-related instruments out of which 65 to 75% would be in Indian securities and 25 to 35% would be in foreign securities. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Fund Opens: September 17, 2007

Fund Closes: October 16, 2007

Face Value: Rs 10

Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment, Payout and Sweep Facility

Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment upto 5 crores.

Exit Load: An exit load of 1% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores if redeemed within six months from the date of allotment.

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Benchmark Index
Plan A: S&P Global 1200

Plan B: It would be benchmarked against a customised benchmark created using BSE 200 to the extent of 65% of portfolio and S&P Global 1200 to the extent of 35% of portfolio

FMP Update

Here are some more launches of FMP that are available in the market at this point of time

Please read the following blogs to get details about what an FMP is and its advantages

1. Why invest in Fixed maturity plans ?

2. Fixed Maturity Plan - FAQ

LICMF Fixed Maturity Plan Series 32
Tenure: 13 Months
Offer open: September 20, 2007
Offer closes: September 27, 2007
Schemes: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Minimum investment: Rs 10000
Cost per unit: Rs 10

DSPML Fixed Term Plan - Series 3H
Tenure: 12 Months
Offer open: September 14, 2007
Offer closes: October 10, 2007
Schemes: Growth and Dividend Reinvestment
Plan: Regular and Institutional
Minimum investment: Rs 25000 (Regular Plan) and Rs 1 crore (Institutional Plan)
Cost per unit: Rs 1000

Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund

Now it is the turn of the Birla AMC to come out with a mutual find that targers international destinations.

This is slightly different from the ones that have been launched by other AMCs as the other funds that have been launched in the recent past still have a significant proprtion of the funds that will be invested in the Indian stock market.

However, this fund has a scheme where a very high propotion of the funds will be invested abroad.

The reason why many of the funds that intend to invest overseas still invest a high proportion in India is to get the tax benefits as defined by the Income Tax rules in India where by tax on long term gains are exmept from tax and the short term gains are taxed at 10% of the gains.

This fund is an Open-End, Equity Diversified Scheme with two types of plans - Plan A and Plan B

Investment Objective
Plan A: The plan would exclusively invest in international stocks.

Plan B: The plan would invest in a blend of domestic and international stocks. It would have the flexibility to invest in stocks across different market capitalisation.

The international investments for both the plans would aim to create a portfolio that is diversified geographically, to take benefit of low correlation between various countries, and to create a portfolio of high quality - high growth stocks.

The domestic portion of the portfolio would provide a strong base to the scheme and the international portion would aim towards reducing the risk through diversification and contribute to returns.

Asset Allocation
Plan A: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to foreign equity and equity-related instruments. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Plan B: Around 90-100 % of investments would be allocated to equity and equity-related instruments out of which 65 to 75% would be in Indian securities and 25 to 35% would be in foreign securities. Fixed income securities and money market component in the portfolio would be around 0 - 10 %.

Fund Opens: September 17, 2007
Fund Closes: October 16, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment, Payout and Sweep Facility

Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment upto 5 crores.

Exit Load: An exit load of 1% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores if redeemed within six months from the date of allotment.

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Benchmark Index
Plan A: S&P Global 1200
Plan B: It would be benchmarked against a customised benchmark created using BSE 200 to the extent of 65% of portfolio and S&P Global 1200 to the extent of 35% of portfolio

Lotus India Overnight Fund

Lotus AMC has launched a new fund called Lotus India Overnight Fund which is an open ended, liquid scheme.

Investment Objective: The fund aims to provide investors with higher level of liquidity and safety. The corpus of the fund would be predominantly deployed in overnight instruments with some allocation to short term securities having maturity upto 91 days. The average portfolio duration will normally be upto 15 days.

Asset Allocation: The fund may invest upto 70% in reverse repo, debt instruments, including floating rate instruments, with overnight maturity/ daily put/call option and upto 30% in debt & money market instruments with residual maturity of upto 91 days.

NFO Opens: September 12, 2007
NFO Closes: September 13, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10

Investment Options: Growth and Dividend Reinvestment

Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000

Load: The fund would neither charge an entry load nor an exit load

Benchmark Index: Crisil Liquid Fund Index

Some more Global Funds

More and more fund houses are jumping onto the bandwagon of launching mutual funds that will invest some part of the funds collected abroad

The different funds offered by AMCs under the similar investment style are Principal Global Opportunities, Kotak Global Emerging Market Fund, Sundaram BNP Paribas Global Advantage Fund, ICICI Prudential Indo Asia Equity Fund and DWS Global Thematic Offshore Fund.


Tata Indo Global Infrastructure Fund
This is a three year closed end equity fund which will automatically be converted into an open ended scheme after the expiry of three years from the date of allotment.

The scheme aims to generate long term capital appreciation by investing predominantly in equity and equity related instruments of companies engaged in infrastructure and infrastructure related sectors, which are incorporated or have their area of primary activity, in India and other parts of the world.

The fund mangers will focus on investment opportunities in Asia Pacific Region including India, Europe and Latin America and other growing economies.

The equity component will range between 65% - 85% of the portfolio while 15% - 35% will constitute foreign securities, debt and money market instruments will be in the range of 0% - 35%.

Snapshot:
Issue Opens: September 3, 2007
Issue Closes: October 16, 2007
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Reinvestment and Payout
Minimum Investment: Rs 10000
Face Value: Rs 10
Benchmark: The benchmark would constitute 65% of BSE Sensex and 35% of MSCI World Index.


ABN AMRO China India Fund

This ian Open-ended fund that endeavors to generate long term capital appreciation by investing in equities of India and China by using top down/bottom up approaches in capturing stock opportunity. It will look for companies that may benefit from the anticipated long-term growth of the China & India economies.

In addition, the fund may also invest a limited proportion of its assets in other international equity and equity related securities.

The fund may invest 65 to 75% of its assets in Indian equity and equity related securities, 25 to 35% of it assets in Chinese equities and upto 10% of its assets in debt & money market instruments.

Snapshot:

Issue Opens: September 3, 2007
issue Closes: October 1, 2007
Face Value: Rs 10
Investment Options: Growth, Dividend Payout and Reinvestment
Entry Load: An entry load of 2.50% would be charged for investment less than 5 crores.
Exit Load: An exit load of 1% is payable if the units are redeemed or switched out within one year from the date of allotment, for investment less than 5 crores. For investments of 5 crores and more but less than 10 crores, an exit load of 0.50% is payable if the units are redeemed or switched out before March 15, 2008.
Minimum Investment Amount: Rs 5000
Benchmark Index: The benchmark will constitute 65% of BSE 200 and 35% of FTSE China International Index