S&P to advise Birla Sun Life on global equity fund

Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund announced here the launch of a new International Equity Fund which will directly invest in the stocks of global companies.

The fund has sourced the services of international credit rating and equity research major Standard & Poor's to advise on the investment decisions in the global stock markets, Raghavendra Nath, head of strategy and marketing for Birla Sun Life told reporters.

Nath said that the fund will have two plans; including one that will invest all its corpus in international stocks and another 65-75 per cent in domestic and the rest in international stocks.

"The fund will be open to investing without any bias for sectors, capitalisation or geography," Nath said, adding that the only guiding principle will be that it will invest only in growth stocks.

Commenting on the role S&P would be playing in the investments made by the fund, Nath said the nature of S&P's involvement would be advisory and they will make investments decisions according to a mutually-agreed strategy.

"Unlike some other funds who invest in global markets but are in the nature of a feeder fund, this fund will invest directly and thus will be a truly global fund," he said.

Standard & Poor's products director for equity research Christopher Lee said this was the company's first assignment of this nature in India. S&P have been offering similar services to Funds in other countries in the Asia market and we consider this a breakthrough for us in India, Lee added.