Taurus Mutual Fund will take over two schemes of BOI Mutual Fund on March 25. The schemes, Boinanza Equity Linked Tax Saving Scheme 1993 and Boinanza Exclusive Growth Scheme, will be renamed Bonanza Equity Linked Tax Saving Scheme and Bonanza Exclusive Growth Scheme respectively. Together, the two schemes have an asset size of around Rs 22 crore.
This is the second instance of a buyout in the Indian mutual fund sector this month. Earlier this week, Templeton Asset Management (India) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to acquire 100 per cent stake in Pioneer ITI AMC. Last month, the Sundaram Finance group had bought out the 39 per cent stake held by Newton Investment Management UK, in Sundaram Newton AMC.
This acquisition marks the second sell-off by an Indian public sector bank of its mutual fund arm. Tata Mutual Fund acquired the assets of Indian Bank Mutual Fund in April last year.
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked public sector banks which promoted mutual funds, to sell off their mutual fund business and concentrate on their core activity, ie banking. This will ensure that weak bank sponsored funds, most of which have dismal track records, move their schemes into the hands of stronger players.
Canbank Mutual Fund, PNB Mutual Fund and Bank of Baroda Mutual Fund are on the lookout for buyers, while SBI and LIC are in search of partners who can bring in the expertise required to run a mutual fund.
As per the terms agreed upon, while the trustees of Taurus Mutual Fund will continue to be the trustees of the new scheme, Creditcapital Asset Management Company will manage the funds. The expenses of the transfer will not be charged to investors.
The investors of these schemes will be given an option to either continue in the schemes under the new auspices or, if they are not agreeable, they can opt out at the NAV as on March 23, 2002, without any load.
The NAV would be declared on a daily basis for open-end schemes and on every Wednesday for closed-end schemes. Taurus will not charge any load to the existing unit holders.