NOVEMBER 5: Dundee Mutual Fund is gearing up for the launch of an `umbrella' balanced fund, which would have specific sectoral bias in preferred industries, the vice-president of the fund, Anil Sahgal, said here today.The balanced fund, to be launched in December this year, would have an investment pattern of 60 per cent in equity and the balance in debt. Sub plans in the most-favoured sectors would be created only when there was enough liquidity in each sector, Sahgal pointed out.Dundee MF has been investing in India since 1996, through its Dynamic Power Funds and even proprietary trading, mainly in infotech and telecom sectors. Its investments in IT sector alone were worth $25 million on date, Sahgal disclosed.Domestic funds under management as on September 30, 1999 in Dundee Liquidity Fund and Dundee Sovereign Trust (gilt fund) were a little over Rs 20 crore. The Dundee Bond Fund, which is open for initial subscription, has sub plans for public sector bonds and corporate bonds respectively.Sehgal said Dundee's strategy was to recreate, over a period of time, the businesses in which Dundee Bancorp was active in Canada. At present, it managed nearly Rs 43,500 crore in global assets.Dundee Bancorp India Private Limited, the holding company, has a paid-up capital of Rs 6 crore. Sehgal said the company intended to carry on business by raising debt and had total credit limits of about Rs 40 crore on date as it provided a comfortable cushion in the form of rupee depreciation. Equity would be increased only if an appropriate hedging mechanism was available, he added.As for the future investment plans, Sehgal said the launch of a real estate fund would coincide with the balanced fund. A gold fund was also on the cards, but its launch would depend on availability of hedging instruments and guidelines on the valuation of derivatives which were not yet ready, Sehgal noted.Among other funds proposed in future are an Institutional Fund which would provide low-cost fund management expertise exclusively to banks and financial institutions.It also intended to design a Foreign Investment Umbrella Fund, which would have to be timed with capital account convertibility. This product, according to Sehgal, would invest in securities abroad through Dundee associates.
