ICICI Mutual Fund And Others May Face Competition From Aviva India

"As part of our expansion strategy in Asia Pacific and keeping in mind the opportunity India presents, we would like to enter into asset management business as soon as possible," Aviva India Managing Director Bert Paterson said. 

However, the company is yet to decide about the structure, he said, adding the company is looking at a number of ways in which it could be set up. 

"We are considering what the various options might involve, but we have no specific plans to announce at the moment," he said. 

"The company has not yet engaged Securities and Exchange Board of India," he added. 

Of the total 20 life insurance players, about 9 already have their asset management arm. Prominent among them include ICICI Prudential, Reliance Mutual Fund, HDFC Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund.
Source : www.business-standard.com

JM Multi Strategy Fund

JM Multi Strategy NFO ( an Open Ended Equity Fund) today, a brief is mentioned here. 

Launch Date : 31st July’08
Closing Date : 29th August’08

JM Multi Strategy Fund will have an active investment strategy which changes with the changing markets. 

Identifying the future market scenario and identifying stocks that are likely to outperform will be critical in managing the fund. JM Multi Strategy will seek to adopt a portfolio strategy depending on the prevailing market conditions; the scheme will either adopt a growth or a value style of investing.

During bullish market conditions, the scheme will act like an aggressive growth fund with a concentrated portfolio of say 25 to 30 stocks and a targeted portfolio beta of greater than 1.

However,in a bearish market, the scheme will have a low volatility conservative portfolio of a larger number of stocks in the range of 40 to 60 stocks with a targeted portfolio beta of less than 1.

The scheme may have to regularly churn its portfolio at periodic intervals in order to achieve the investment objective and as such the portfolio turnover ratio could be high.

 

The intention is that in these market conditions the fund will switch between aggressive and defensive large caps depending on the market conditions. The fund will have large caps to an extent of 90 to 95%. 

Load Structure: 

Entry Load Exit Load 

In case of investments <>2.25%
In case of investments >= Rs. 2 crores : Nil

In case of investments <>1% if redeemed within 1 year of allotment / transfer of units. 
In case of investments >= Rs. 2 crores: 0.5% if redeemed within 3 months of allotment/transfer of units 
In case of investments made through Systematic Investment Facility : Nil

In case of investments made through Systematic Investment Facility: 2.25% if redeemed within 2 year of allotment / transfer of units of respective installments.

Reliance Cap, HSBC, ICICI join SBI to manage EPFO fund

New Delhi, July 29 In a move that may have far-reaching impact on the future income of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), the largest provident fund in the country on Tuesday decided to induct three private sector fund managers — the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital AMC, HSBC AMC and ICICI Prudential AMC — as its new fund managers.
SBI monopoly ends 

This ends the age-old monopoly of State Bank of India, which will, however, continue as the sole public sector fund manager.

The organisation has a corpus of about Rs 1,55,561 crore (at face value) as on March 2007 and around four crore subscribers.

The inclusion of Reliance came as a last minute surprise as the company did not figure in the recommendations placed before the Central Board of Trustees (CBT) by its Finance and Investment Committee (FIC).

The FIC had recommended only two private sector players. The Labour Secretary, Ms Sudha Pillai, told reporters after the meeting that “the CBT has decided to allow Reliance Capital, ICICI Prudential, HSBC and SBI to manage provident fund of employees.”
Same score.

Officials said that SBI and Reliance had the same score in the financial bid, but SBI had a better technical bid evaluation with 81 points out of 100 while Reliance had scored 77 out of 100. The CBT took the decision based on the financial bid, they said.

The CBT Member and Secretary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Mr A.D. Nagpal, who is also a member of the FIC, told Business Line after the meeting that “The FIC had not recommended Reliance. We have put our dissent on record,” he said.
Management fee.

According to the bids approved on Tuesday, Reliance and SBI will get an investment management fee of 10 paisa for every Rs 1,000 managed (0.01 per cent). ICICI Prudential and HSBC AMC will receive 7.5 paisa and 6.3 paisa, respectively, for every Rs 1,000 managed by them.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

HDFC Equity's Stock Selection Strategy

HDFC Equity Fund, one of the top performers in the Indian market has been around for 13 years now. [Originally from ITC Threadneedle then to Zurich and then into HDFC AMC] The silent and soft-spoken Sr. Fund Manager, Prashant Jain who rarely comments in the media has released a note celebrating 13 years of HDFC Equity Fund.

One thing that is worth noticing in the note is the stock selection procedure adopted by the company sticking to its internal process of "Avoiding the Big Mistakes" [ Real Estate, Brokerage Houses etc]. He further said,
Owning strong businesses, that are likely to grow earnings at above market rates. Focusing on long term prospects and valuations and ignoring short to medium term market aberrations i.e ignoring momentum stocks / stocks with excessive valuations if not justified by fundamentals. Remain diversified with exposure to mid-caps varying between a third to fourth of portfolio.

ABN Amro appoints two new key personnel

ABN Amro Mutual Fund has two new key personnel joined AMC, Ms Aparna Karmase and Ms Monaz Elavia with effect from 9th July, 2008. Ms Aparna Karmase is designated as Compliance Officer, Risk Manager and Company Secretary at the age of 30. She is LLB and has done ACS from Institute of Company Secretaries of India. She worked as Company Secretarial & Legal Department - KJMC Global Market (India) Ltd till October 2002; Ms Monaz Elavia is designated as Head of Client Service department at the age of 32 and has done studies in Bachelor of Arts. She worked with Vodafone as Customer Service Executive till Aug 1999.

Benchmark MF Files Offer Document With Sebi

Benchmark Mutual Fund filed offer document with Sebi to launch Shariah BeES. The Benchmark Mutual Fund has filed the offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for launching a dedicated scheme of Shariah Benchmark Exchange Traded Scheme (Shariah BeES). It's an open-ended exchange listed index scheme. The minimum application amount under the scheme is Rs. 10000 and in multiple of Re 1 thereafter. ach unit of the scheme being offered will have a face value of Rs.10 each and will be issued at a premium approximately equal to the difference between face value and 1/10th of the value of the S&P CNX Nifty Shariah Index.

MFs gaining popularity in India, finds Nielsen survey

In 2007, MFs had a 40% share of investment options available to consumers, said the Mutual Fund Brand Health Monitor-4 survey

Mutual funds (MFs) have become the investment tool of choice for Indian investors, who no longer treat them as tax-saving options, but buy them in the hope of earning higher returns, said a survey released by market researcher Nielsen Co.
Popular choice: An ICICI Bank branch in New Delhi. The Nielsen survey found mutual funds offered by ICICI Prudential to be among the most recalled brands among investors. Photograph: Rajeev Dabral / Mint.

In 2007, MFs had a 40% share of investment options available to consumers, said the Mutual Fund Brand Health Monitor-4 survey. Of 1,600 investors polled, 90% said they preferred to invest in MFs over other investment options, it said.

According to the Association of Mutual Funds in India, total assets under management in June were at Rs5.65 trillion, down from Rs6 trillion in May. That drop came as rising food and fuel prices pushed inflation to a 13-year high, credit costs rose and foreign inflows slumped amid global economic uncertainty. The Bombay Stock Exchange’s benchmark Sensex has declined 30% this year, buffeted by global economic headwinds.

Still, MFs have benefited from aggressive marketing, wider media coverage and higher returns they delivered to investors in recent years, Nielsen said in a statement, adding that there had been a mindset change among investors who regarded them once as tax-saving tools. 
They are “...now buying them in the hope of greater financial return”, said Kalyan Karmakar, associate director for customized research at Nielsen. 

The survey found Reliance Mutual Fund to be the most recalled brand among investors, followed by those offered by ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co., State Bank of India and HDFC Asset Management Co. Ltd.

JPMorgan AMC launches JPMorgan India Alpha Fund

JPMorgan Asset Management India Pvt. Ltd. (JPMAMIPL) today announced the launch of JPMorgan India Alpha Fund, an actively managed scheme that aims to produce returns from a portfolio in an all-seasons environment.

The ‘Alpha’ strategy used here involves taking positions with minimal market risk by buying one stock (or its derivative) and selling another (or its derivative). This usually means identifying some trend that is benefiting one company and at the same time is detrimental to another. 

Traditional equity funds tend to invest directly into stocks, which may go either up or down leading to either appreciation or depreciation of one’s investments. In the JPMorgan India Alpha fund, the fund manager would endeavor to construct a portfolio in a manner which will reduce the market risk (beta) significantly by investing in ‘stocks / derivatives with pair trades’. The stock selection would generate the returns (alpha) of the fund. The fund would invest in stocks / derivatives which would illustrate both positive and negative conviction on ideas and seek to benefit from relative outperformance.

The JPMorgan India Alpha Fund will be open for subscription from 31st July to 29th August 2008. 

The JPMorgan India Alpha Fund is an ideal fit for any investor who owns equity mutual funds or direct equity in his portfolio. It is a complement to the existing long-only portfolio as it endeavors to reduce the overall risk (beta) of the portfolio because of the investment strategy. The strategy would be an ideal fit for investors who would like to have an exposure in the equity market but at the same time are not confident from a market outlook standpoint.

Krishnamurthy Vijayan, Wholetime Director & CEO, JPMAMIPL said, "At the launch of JPMorgan's mutual fund business in India, we had promised to bring in a diverse suite of our global fund products. The launch of JPMorgan India Alpha Fund is just one of the global investment solutions that we bring to you from the JPMorgan suite; and we will continue to launch more of them over the next few years. We are strong believers in long term investment and this fund reinstates our philosophy. We at JPMAMIPL are very excited and feel this fund will become an important part of investors’ portfolios."

Harshad Patwardhan, Investment Manager – Equity, JPMAMIPL said, “The JPMorgan India Alpha Fund will be a great addition to the existing long-only portfolio of investors as it endeavors to reduce the overall risk of the portfolio. The strategy is meant to act as an alternate equity investment targeted at the investor who does not want to take a directional call on the market.”