Sundaram BNP Paribas Energy Opportunities

Sundaram BNP has launched a new fund called Sundaram BNP Paribas Energy Opportunities. This seems to be next flavor of most of the fund houses and after infrastrucure, everyone is focussing on the enengry related sector for the next wave of growth. It is a three year closed-end equity fund. The fund will invest in shares of energy and energy related companies. It will automatically be converted into an open ended fund after three years from the date of allotment.

Enter this fund and i am sure you will own a part of the energy stock such as Reliance industries, ONGC, Reliance petroleum, Suzlon, Tata Power, Reliance energy etc.

The scheme may invest in stocks of companies that fall into any of the following categories:

• Producers of energy
• Contractors for oil & gas
• Suppliers of equipment and materials for creation of necessary infrastructure for production, distribution and consumption of energy
• Providers of services for creation of necessary infrastructure for production, distribution and consumption of energy
• Distributors of energy in various forms
• Manufacturers who may benefit from expanded availability of energy at competitive prices
• End users of power
• Players who benefit from likely changes such as usage of gas by homes and usage of energy from alternative sources and any changes that may emerge due to enhanced availability of energy
• Producers of energy from alternative sources
• Other beneficiaries from the energy theme who may come to the forefront in the years ahead

Scheme Details
Issue Opens: November 12, 2007
Issue Closes: December 11, 2007
Fund Category: Closed-end, Equity Scheme
Benchmark Index: BSE Oil and Gas Index
Minimum Investment: Rs 5000
Entry Load: Nil
Exit Load: Nil. However, redemption will be permitted after deduction of unamortized initial issue expenses
Cost: Initial issue expenses, not exceeding 6 per cent of the corpus collected, would be amortized on a daily basis over the three-year close-ended tenure of the scheme

Performance of Similar Funds
Currently there are only two funds focussing only upon the energy/ power sector which are Reliance Diversified Power Sector and UTI energy fund. Of these, Reliance Diversified Power Sector Fund stands out in terms of performance, with phenomenal returns of over 128 per cent in the last one year period.