Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Sebi to focus on new set of reforms

Sinha forms panels to address concerns on IPOs, mutual funds; warns local firms not following regulations

Retail investors occupy centre stage for capital market regulator U.K. Sinha, but their protection need not rob the market of its growth, something a section of market intermediaries says his predecessor C.B. Bhave had done.

“There has to be a market and then only you can protect the investors,” Sinha said on Friday in an interview. “If there is no industry and no market, then whom do you protect?”

Bhave is of the opinion that the industry could survive only when investors’ interest is protected.

The new chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is preparing for the second stage of reforms in the primary as well as the secondary market.

As the first step, he has instituted a few committees to look into issues such as the procedures of initial public offerings (IPOs) and the impact of the ban on the so-called entry fees on the Rs. 7 trillion mutual fund industry. Some of the committees are expected to submit reports in as early as six weeks.

Sinha is also emphatic that he would continue Sebi’s battle again local firms that are not following the rules of the game. Big companies can delay Sebi’s decisions because they have financial muscle and can fight hard, but the regulator will not be intimidated by them, he said.

“I would like people to know that be careful, Sebi is watching,” he said. “As a regulator, I would put my energy more on deterrence rather than punishment, if there is a choice.”

Sinha has taken charge at Sebi at a time when the regulator is handling a number of critical issues, including the new takeover code and the ownership and capital issue norms for market infrastructure institutions such as exchanges, depositories and clearing houses.

He expects the new takeover code to be in place ahead of framing rules for market infrastructure institutions on which a panel, headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan, submitted a report last year.

Sinha said the proposal to change takeover norms has been discussed at the Sebi board twice and will be finalized after government gives its suggestions.

On another contentious issue, allowing MCX Stock Exchange Ltd (MCX-SX) to trade in equities, he did not give a specific response as the case is being legally fought, but said Sebi will encourage competition.

“One of the areas of worry today is lack of competition. We will take policy measures to ensure that there is more competition,” he said. “Over the past three years particularly, the competition in the exchange industry has become concentrated. In some cases, a very high percentage of business is with one exchange.”

Sebi did not allow MCX-SX equity trading as it found the exchange did not fully conform with ownership norms.

In August 2009, Sebi had scrapped entry fees—an upfront commission paid by an investor for putting money in a mutual fund scheme. Since then, the mutual fund industry has been complaining about a decline in sales.

Sinha, who was then heading India’s fourth largest asset management firm, UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd, had vehemently opposed the ban.

The idea behind setting up a committee to look into the affairs of mutual fund industry is “to see how the growth of the industry can be accelerated, and to arrest the decline”.

Stating that the geographical reach of the industry has shrunk, Sinha said he will strive to “enhance the reach of the industry”.

Though many claim that the industry’s growth and reach have suffered following the entry load ban, between August 2009 and March 2011, investors have saved at least Rs. 2,500 crore in various schemes. The gross inflow during this period was about Rs. 1.15 trillion.

“Despite the entry loan ban in 2010, gross inflows in equity funds touched a three-year high,” a Morgan Stanley report in February said.

In a 5 May interview with AsianInvestor magazine, K.N. Vaidyanathan, executive director of Sebi, said he wanted the fund industry to grow in terms of muscle, and not fat. He also said asset management companies should grow steadily but not at the cost of investors’ money.

At a Mumbai seminar in 2010, Bhave had criticized the industry for running several schemes with suboptimal returns and launching one scheme after another that provided incentives only to distributors, but confused investors and failed to meet their expectations.

Sinha also plans to simplify disclosures made by firms in offer documents for IPOs and follow-on public offers (FPOs). It may force merchant bankers to disclose their track record in offer documents and clearly justify the pricing of an issue in a more transparent way.

Pricing of IPOs and FPOs has always remained a major concern in India.

In September, while addressing a conference of Association of Merchant Bankers of India, Bhave questioned the transparency of the merchant bankers while pricing IPOs and FPOs.

“If you look at maximizing the price for promoters, then obviously you are not looking after the interests of investors,” Bhave had said.

According to a Mint analysis, till the first week of May, 39 of the 56 IPOs that were launched during fiscal 2011 were trading below their offer prices.

“We are discussing what better information we can provide to the investors on pricing. For instance, if you are a merchant banker and you have done five issues in the last one year, can we provide the track record of you on those five issues?…For IPOs, can we disclose at a certain price...what is the price earning ratio of the stock?” said Sinha.

He also wants to simplify other market-entry procedures such as opening a demat account with a bank or an account with a brokerage to buy and sell shares.

“When somebody is trying to get registered with a broker and trying to open a demat account, I am told that there are 50 signatures required… All sorts of assertions and all sorts of obligations are made,” he said. “Obviously it is discouraging the retail investors. We would like to simplify that.”

Source: http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/08232528/Sebi-to-focus-on-new-set-of-re.html

Aegon to exit India's mutual fund business

Dutch financial services group Aegon intends to surrender its licence to operate in India's mutual fund industry, which is going through its roughest patch following a string of regulatory restrictions. An Aegon official is said to have met capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) recently in this regard.

An email query to Aegon on why the group plans to exit India's mutual fund industry did not elicit a response till the time of going to the press. But sources in the mutual fund industry said Aegon no longer considers the asset management business in India as a 'strategic fit' for its growth plans in the country.

This is the first instance where a mutual fund has expressed its intention to the market regulator to give up its licence, industry officials said. "It's a little surprising. Despite the hurdles faced by fund houses, India continues to be one of the hottest emerging markets," said a fund manager with a private mutual fund.

Aegon is yet to launch a mutual fund product in India since receiving the li-cence from Sebi in October 2008 to start an asset management venture with New Delhi-based Religare Enterprises . But a month later, Aegon and Religare parted ways amid speculation of a rift between the two. The two companies continue to be partners in their life insurance joint venture, Aegon Religare Life Insurance .

Mutual fund industry officials said Aegon has been hunting for a partner, espe-cially a bank, for the asset management business since the split, but did not man-age to find one. The speculation is that the inability to find a joint venture partner could have contributed to the proposal to give up the mutual fund licence.

"Being a late entrant into industry, it was important for Aegon to get a partner with a decent network because it is really expensive and tedious to start afresh without distribution support," said an analyst, requesting anonymity.

Most foreign financial groups, which are part of India's 41-member strong asset management industry, have felt the need to partner a local bank, especially after the ban on mutual funds to charge investors to pay distributors an upfront fee, known as entry load. Distributors almost stopped selling mutual fund products after the move, affect-ing inflows into mutual fund equity schemes, which fetched them maximum fees.

Some mutual fund industry officials are surprised by Aegon's plan, as they feel the group is well-placed to take advantage of the offshore advisory business. Leading asset management companies nowadays are focusing more on their "offshore advisory" business, where they give research-based advice to foreign funds that invest in India for a fee.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/personal-finance/mutual-funds/mf-news/aegon-to-exit-indias-mutual-fund-business/articleshow/8212731.cms

ICICI Prudential Multiple Yield Fund Plan A floats on

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has launched new fund named as ICICI Prudential Fixed Multiple Yield Fund Plan A, a close ended income fund. The tenure of the plan in days is 1100 days. The New Fund Offer price for the scheme is Rs 10 per unit. The new issue will open for subscription on 20 May 2011 and closes on 31 May 2011.

The primary objective of the Plan under the Scheme is to seek to generate returns by investing in a portfolio of fixed income securities/ debt instruments. The secondary objective of the Scheme is to generate long term capital appreciation by investing a portion of the Scheme's assets in equity and equity related instruments.

Presently, two options are available under the schemes viz. cumulative and dividend option. Dividend Payout is the only facility available under dividend option. The default option shall be cumulative option under the scheme.

The scheme will allocate upto 70%-100% of assets in money market instruments, Short term and medium term debt securities/ debt instruments and securitised debt and invest upto 30% of the asset in equity or equity related Securities with medium to high risk profile.

If the Plan decides to invest in securitised debt, it could be upto 50% of the corpus of the Plan.

• If the plan decides to invest in equity derivatives it could be upto 100% of the allocation to equity. The margin money requirement for the purpose of derivative exposure may be held in the form of term deposits. The Scheme shall not take leverage positions and total investments, including investments in equity and other securities and gross exposure to derivatives, if any, shall not exceed net assets under management of the scheme.

• If the plan decides to invest in foreign securities it could be upto 100% of the allocation to equity.

Entry load and exit load charge are not applicable for the scheme. The scheme is proposed to be listed on NSE.

The minimum application amount is Rs 5000 and in multiples of Rs 10 thereafter.

The fund seeks to collect a minimum subscription amount of Rs 5 crore during the NFO period.

The benchmark index for the scheme will be Crisil MIP Blended Index.

The scheme will be managed by Mr. Chaitanya Pande.

Source: http://www.adityabirlamoney.com/news/474968/10/22,24/Mutual-Funds-Reports/ICICI-Prudential-Multiple-Yield-Fund-Plan-A-floats-on-

Inflation to weigh on equity markets

Thematic funds have not out-performed the equity diversified mutual funds most of the times. ‘When thematic funds perform they beat the equity diversified funds by a big margin’, says CIO, Sundaram Mutual Fund, Satish Ramanathan in conversation with Ritu Kant Ojha. ‘Invest with a clear long term perspective and be aware of the risks caused by rising crude prices’ he says. Excerpts:

With the announcement of rate hike by RBI what impact do you see on the equity market?

While the market was expecting about 25 bps increase, RBI did 50 bps hike. Inflation is one major risk factor for the market. In order to pre-empt the expected increase in administered fuel and electricity prices, RBI has taken this step. India suffers from imported inflation and that is feeding into core inflation. RBI is also vocal in sacrificing some growth to control inflation. We also hope inflation is quickly brought under control. As of now, it is not affecting the realisable long term growth. But in the short term, it would weigh on the market heavily.

Equity markets in India have been mostly volatile since last 18 months. What strategy should medium to long term investors must adopt in such a market?

The investors should come with the clear long term perspective in mind and also should be aware of the risks caused by the crude going up.

Sundaram has several thematic funds in its portfolio. How have thematic funds performed vis-a-vis equity diversified funds? Both in industry as well as Sundaram mutual?

We have several thematic fund offerings. Thematic funds play a unique role in the sense when the themes perform they beat the diversified equity by a big margin. For example, in the calendar year 2010, the NIFTY returned about 18 per cent return whereas our Financial Services fund returned about 35 per cent return. Similarly the Rural fund also gave about 20.80 per cent return during that period. So the key point to note when the themes do well, they outperform the market.

What are the sectors you are bullish on in the near term (12 months)?

We like defensive sectors like consumer, telecom, pharma and also have cautious positive view on financials and information technology and we are negative on rate sensitive sectors like real estate, etc

You have recently launched Sundaram equity plus fund. Given the current market sentiments in equities and high gold prices, how do you justify the theme and timing of the NFO launch ?

It is the product that combines two powerful global asset classes (Indian equitites and gold) in a tax efficient way. We note that investors are already investing 15 per cent of their physical savings in gold in the last 10 years or so and this product offers a convenient way of buying gold.

Do you think gold ETFs will find space with Indian gold investors who traditionally choose to invest in the physical gold?

Gold Exchange Traded Funds are evolving and would be better way of investing in gold rather than the physical form. It scores over physical gold in several ways.

What are cost an investor has to pay to invest in this New Fund Offer

The units are issued at par. There is no cost to the investor.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/inflation-to-weigh-on-equity-markets/787647/0

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  • IDFC Premier Equity Fund (Stock picker Fund) (STP) 11%
  • HDFC Equity Fund (Mid cap Fund) 11%
  • Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund (Large Cap Fund) 10%
  • HDFC TOP 200 Fund (Large Cap Fund) 8%
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  • IDFC Savings Advantage Fund (Liquid Fund) 6%
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Moderate Portfolio

  • HDFC TOP 200 Fund (Large Cap Fund) 11%
  • Principal Large Cap Fund (Largecap Equity Fund) 10%
  • Reliance Vision Fund (Large Cap Fund) 10%
  • IDFC Imperial Equity Fund (Large Cap Fund) 10%
  • Reliance Regular Saving Fund (Stock Picker Fund) 10%
  • Birla Sun Life Front Line Equity Fund (Large Cap Fund) 9%
  • HDFC Prudence Fund (Balance Fund) 9%
  • ICICI Prudential Dynamic Plan (Dynamic Fund) 9%
  • Principal MIP Fund (15% Equity oriented) 10%
  • IDFC Savings Advantage Fund (Liquid Fund) 6%
  • Kotak Flexi Fund (Liquid Fund) 6%

Conservative Portfolio

  • ICICI Prudential Index Fund (Index Fund) 16%
  • HDFC Prudence Fund (Balance Fund) 16%
  • Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Balanced Option (Balance Fund) 16%
  • Principal Monthly Income Plan (MIP Fund) 16%
  • HDFC TOP 200 Fund (Large Cap Fund) 8%
  • Principal Large Cap Fund (Largecap Equity Fund) 8%
  • JM Arbitrage Advantage Fund (Arbitrage Fund) 16%
  • IDFC Savings Advantage Fund (Liquid Fund) 14%

Best SIP Fund For 10 Years

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