Reliance MF mops up record Rs 5000 crore

Reliance Equity Fund, the latest growth fund offering from Reliance Mutual Fund, has created history by collecting over Rs 5,000 crore through its new fund offering.

The largest fund collection during the initial subscription for a growth fund so far has been Rs 2,850 crore by SBI Bluechip.

Sources said there were around 8.5 lakh applicants who subscribed to the fund. This, too, is an unprecedented number. SBI Bluechip had received subscriptions from 7 lakh applications.

With the new fund, Reliance Mutual Fund could well become the leading private sector fund house in the country. On the last count, at the end of February 2005, Reliance Mutual was about Rs 4,508 crore short of the leading private sector player Prudential ICICI. Reliance MF manages assets worth Rs 16,859 crore and ranks fifth in the asset management sweepstakes.

UTI Mutual Fund is the top fund manager in the country with assets worth Rs 27,619 crore. Prudential ICICI is tops private sector mutual funds, managing assets worth Rs 21,367 crore, followed by HDFC Mutual Fund (Rs 20,122 crore) and Franklin Templeton (Rs 17,996 crore).

Distributors said Reliance Mutual was hell bent on beating Prudential ICICI to become the top player in the fund industry this month.

"The sales and marketing team has been in full swing to achieve this," said a distributor. Buoyant market, positive investor sentiment and aggressive marketing have combined to help Reliance create history, the distributor said.