Birla Sun Life bullish on UP

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund is bullish on Uttar Pradesh. Besides Kanpur and Lucknow, it has representatives in Agra, Moradabad, Meerut and Varanasi. Gorakhpur and Allahabad are in line. The IPO of Birla MF turned in about Rs 55 crore from Kanpur and Lucknow. Of the 670,000 investors in Birla Mutual Fund, at least 50,000-60,000 are from UP, and about 18,000 from Kanpur.

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund has launched Birla Infrastructure Fund. Northern Zone Manager Preet Singh said in a press briefing till today Rs 4,000-5,000 crore had been gathered by various mutual funds for investment in infrastructure, though this looked to be minuscule.

For instance, the total market capitalistion of all Indian companies is about Rs 5 lakh crore, of which the infrastructure sector will have at least half the share.

Thus, this area will include power equipment companies, engineering and construction firms, power utilities, steel, banks and finance companies, vehicle makers, etc. These represent about Rs 2.5 lakh crore of market capitalisation.

Further, the infrastructure sector requires massive funding in airports, roads, and power, and the proposed investment in the next five years is Rs 246,000 crore.

Besides, Rs 25, 000 crore will be invested in ports, again in the next five years. In all, an investment of Rs 8 lakh crore is expected in the sector by 2012.

The minimum application for this open-ended scheme is of Rs 5,000.

Senior Fund Manager Ajay Urgal said about 10 persons were tracking the company's performance.

And, the company is coming up with a new fund offer. The fund offer's last date is likely to be extended to February 24 from February 18.