Mirae Asset Global Investment Management gets SEBI Clearance

Mirae Asset Global Investment Management (India) Pvt. Ltd. is all set to commence its mutual fund operations in India as it has obtained AMC license from SEBI. The launch of the asset management business in India will be in line with its long term vision for the Indian market. The company plans to launch its products soon across the equity and fixed income category and will start operations with a presence in 23 cities.

Apart from product innovation, Mirae Asset plans to focus on investor education as a strategy to expand the mutual fund category in India.

(Source: Value Research)

New Funds - Kotak Indo World Infrastructure Fund

Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company has come out with a three-year close ended equity fund called Kotak Indo World Infrastructure Fund. The fund seeks to generate long-term capital appreciation by investing in stocks of domestic as well as global infrastructure companies. This fund would automatically be converted into an open ended fund after the expiry of three years.

The fund proposes to invest at least 65 per cent of the fund proceeds into Indian equities. It has an option of investing between 10-35 per cent in overseas infrastructure fund and upto 35 per cent may be invested in debt and money market instruments.

The fund has short-listed a global infrastructure fund of T. Rowe Price (to be launched soon) as the vehicle to invest in overseas markets. Kotak Mutual Fund had launched a fund focused on the emerging markets in July this year, which primarily invests in the units of T. Rowe Price SICAV-TGEMF.

Scheme Details
Issue Opens: November 27, 2007
Issue Closes: December 22, 2007
Type: Closed-end, equity scheme
Benchmark Index: S&P CNX Nifty to the extend of 65 per cent of the portfolio, and MSCI World Index to the extend of 35 percent of the portfolio.
Minimum Investment: Rs. 5,000
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.

About the Fund Managers
Mr. Krishna Sanghvi (responsible for domestic equity investments), along with Mr. Abhijeet Dey (responsible for overseas investments) and Mr. Ritesh Jain (responsible for debt investments) will collectively manage this scheme. Sanghvi has been with Kotak since 1997, working in different group companies - Kotak Mahindra Primus, Kotak Mahindra Finance and Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance. He has also worked with IDBI for two years. Presently he is the manager of Kotak 30, Kotak Balance, Kotak Income Plus, Kotak Opportunities and Kotak Lifestyle.

Mr. Abhijeet Dey has a total work experience of 6 years in the equity markets. His prior assignments were with consulting firm Frost & Sullivan India as an automotive industry analyst, and India Infoline as an equity research analyst.

Ritesh Jain is responsible for managing FMPs and some of the debt funds. He has a total experience of 7 years. He started his career in foreign exchange banking at Corporation Bank. Prior to joining the Kotak Mahindra group, he also worked briefly with Ranbaxy Laboratories, managing US$ 500 million of foreign exchange treasury. Jain joined the AMC in 2003 as part of the fund management team.

Performance History: Kotak Mutual
Kotak Mutual started in 1998 and currently manages assets worth Rs 22,577 crores. Of this, Rs 3024 crore, i.e. 13% is in 13 equity funds. On the performance front, it has been a mixed bag for Kotak. While funds like Kotak 30 and Kotak Opportunities boast of a very good performance record, others like Kotak MNC have remained laggards.

Opinion
Funds focused on infrastructure related companies have led the pack of top performing fund in recent past. But there are 13 existing funds to choose from. However, this offering from Kotak might be of interest to investors who want to tap the growth potential of global infrastructure related companies as well. This will also help spread the sharp downside risk, which can be particularly useful when Indian infrastructure stocks go out of favour domestically in a market downturn.

Performance delivered by funds of similar peer group:

Returns
Fund		Launch date		3 Months		6 Months		1 Year		2 Year
Birla Infrastructure		Feb-06		30.40		46.02		59.44		-
Canara Robeco Infrastructure		Nov-05		40.86		63.99		79.57		-
DSPML T.I.G.E.R. Reg		May-04		35.69		48.06		66.89		64.14
Escorts Infrastructure Fund		Aug-07		-		-		-		-
ICICI Prudential Infrastructure		Aug-05		43.89		58.66		79.23		73.55
ICICI Prudential Infrastructure Inst I		Mar-06		44.15		59.33		-		-
JM HI FI		Mar-06		27.30		52.23		42.66		-
Lotus India Infrastructure		Oct-07		-		-		-		-
Sahara Infrastructure Fixed Pricing		Mar-06		39.12		53.58		71.62		-
Sahara Infrastructure Variable Pricing		Mar-06		39.36		54.15		72.89		-
SBI Infrastructure Fund Series 1		Jun-07		34.77		-		-		-
Sundaram BNP Paribas CAPEX Opp.-G		Sep-05		43.39		65.02		82.62		71.94
Tata Infrastructure		Dec-04		42.94		61.57		73.66		71.01
UTI Infrastructure		Apr-04		36.92		51.59		64.12		66.32
Returns as on November 30, 2007 (Source: Value Research)

New Funds - Franklin Asian Equity Fund

Franklin Templeton Investments has launched an equity fund- Franklin Asian Equity Fund. This open ended fund will invest in companies in the Asian region, excluding Japan.

As per the stated asset allocation, the scheme will deploy at least 50 per cent of its assets in foreign equity while the domestic equity can go up to 40 per cent. Overall, equity and equity linked instruments would account for at least 70 per cent of the portfolio while up to 30 per cent may be invested in fixed income securities.

Scheme Details
Issue Opens: November 19, 2007
Issue Closes: December 18, 2007
Type: Open-end, equity scheme
Benchmark Index: MSCI Asia (ex-Japan) Standard Index
Minimum Investment: Rs 5,000
Entry Load: 2.25 per cent for investment of less than Rs 5 crore
Exit Load: For investment of less than Rs 5 crore, an exit load of 0.50 per cent will be charged, if redeemed within one year of allotment. For investment of more than Rs 5 crore, an exit load of 1 per cent will be charged upon redemption within six months from the date of allotment

About the Fund Managers
Mr. Sukumar and Ms. Roshi Jain will manage this scheme. Sukumar has a total work experience of 17 years. Prior to joining Franklin Templeton AMC he worked with Tata Steel (1986-1988), Indbank Merchant Banking Services (1990-1994) and Pioneer ITI AMC (1994-2002). Currently, he is managing Franklin Prima Plus, Franklin India Flexi Cap and several fund of funds.

Franklin Asian Equity Fund will be the first fund managed by Ms. Roshi. She will be responsible for overseas investments. Her previous assignments were with Goldman Sachs (London), Goldman Sachs (Singapore), Wipro and S. R. Batliboi & Company.

Fund From To Return Rank/Count Franklin India Prima Plus-G Sep-94 Till Date 26.73 2/13 Templeton India CAP Education Plan Mar-04 Till Date 10.63 17/20 FT India Dynamic PE Ratio FoF-G Oct-03 Till Date 31.99 1/2 FT India Life Stage FoF 20s-G Nov-03 Till Date 31.71 60/69 FT India Life Stage FoF 30s-G Nov-03 Till Date 22.15 24/24 FT India Life Stage FoF 40s-G Nov-03 Till Date 15.38 11/18 FT India Life Stage FoF 50s Plus-G Nov-03 Till Date 10.04 16/18 Franklin IIF BSE Sensex-G Apr-04 Till Date 31.31 4/5 FT India Life Stage FoF 50s Plus FR-G Jul-04 Till Date 13.93 16/21 Franklin India Flexi Cap-G Feb-05 Till Date 49.46 34/99 Templeton India CAP Gift Plan-G Mar-04 Till Date 32.16 17/29

Performance History: Franklin Templeton
Franklin India AMC started its operation in the year 1996 and currently figures among the prominent asset managers of the country. Franklin was the first one to launch an open-ended equity fund in India. Currently they are managing assets worth Rs. 32,042 crore out of which 54 per cent is contributed towards equity.

The equity schemes of the fund house boast of a good long-term performance record. Out of its nine rated equity funds, six are rated 3-star and three are rated 4-star.

Opinion
Franklin Asia Equity Fund will invest in shares of Indian as well as emerging Asian markets. The fund family's good long-term track record and presence and strength in other Asian markets is a plus. However, the appreciating rupee may hurt the fund's performance. The other problem is that this equity fund with less than 65% allocation to domestic shares will be deprived of the capital gains exemption for long-term gains, lower short-term capital gains tax and tax-free dividend.

(Source: Value Research)

Sundaram BNP Paribas Select Focus-G

The fund has a focused strategy and its till-date performance shows that the fund has been fairly successful in implementing this strategy. This makes it a good pick for most investors

This fund's no-nonsense, focused approach has resulted in decent returns to bag a four-star rating.

With a mandate to invest in not more than 30 stocks, with a particular focus on three themes, a concentrated portfolio is the legitimate outcome (the top five holdings account for 40 per cent of the assets).

Though an aggressive offering, the risks are partly mitigated by a strong bias for large-cap stocks. The fund anchors itself in the big and prominent companies of the sector or themes it believes to be most promising. Going by its returns, it has been fairly successful in implementing this strategy.

Naturally, this mandate also translates into a high portfolio turnover. Most of the stocks have remained in its portfolio for less than six months. Many others keep moving in and out frequently. In fact, many a times it seems to overdo it as stocks are rotated in the space of just a couple of months. But the fund manager deserves a pat on the back for her success in sector rotations. For example, the fund had timed its entry in the technology sector in the last quarter of 2002 to perfection. It also exited the sector at the right time to avoid the losses in the subsequent two quarters when technology stocks lost massively. Similarly, the fund manager was spot on with the entry into the metal sector in the second quarter this year. More such instances of apt sector moves are visible in its portfolios. Another striking trait of the fund is the proactive way in which it moves into cash to protect the downside during market crashes. A fairly aggressive offering, this fund has delivered what it set out to do.

(Source: Value Research)

Launching Standard Chartered Fixed Maturity Plan-Eighteen Months Series 1

Date of Opening 16-Nov-07

Date of Closing 14-Dec-07

Date of allotment 21-Dec-07

Date of Maturity 18-Jun-09

Minimum Amount Plan A Rs. 5000/-

Minimum Amount Plan B Rs. 100,000/-