Reuters
Mumbai: Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co Ltd said on Tuesday, 11 September, its first international equity fund, to open on 17 September, would pick global stocks on advise from rating agency Standard and Poor’s.
Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund, open for purchase between Sept 17 and Oct 16 initially, would invest as per a model portfolio of about 50 stocks constructed by the investment advisory arm of Standard and Poor’s.
“We are trying to create a truly global portfolio,” Vice President Raghvendra Nath said, adding the fund would not have any capitalisation or regional biases.
India’s rapidly-growing Rs4.68 trillion fund industry saw the launch of at least nine funds investing in the international market this year.
Schemes from Fidelity, Tata, ICICI Prudential and ABN AMRO are currently open for subscription to take advantage of a $4 billion cap on overseas investments.
Birla Sun Life’s fund would offer two plans.
Under Plan A, the fund would invest at least 90 percent of the assets in foreign equities and the rest in fixed income instruments. In Plan B, 65-75% would be in Indian and 25-35 percent in foreign stocks, and the rest in debt securities.
The fund house managed assets worth about Rs271 billion at the end of August, data from Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.
