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UTI to revamp portfolio

Our Bureau

CHENNAI, Aug. 20

UNIT Trust of India plans to change its portfolio in a manner in which it does not suffer losses, the market does not get hit and the value of UTI's holding goes up, according to its Chairman, Mr M. Damodaran.

He told a press conference here today that UTI had a number of scrips where its holding was marginal. It would exit these scrips as it would be difficult to track these scrips especially when its portfolio was large.

Besides, there were some scrips where UTI was ``overweight'' and in which sectors UTI was not bullish on. It would exit these scrips partly through market operations and partly through sale to strategic investors, he said.

Would not UTI's sale of shares affect the market? ``We are modulating our market moves in a manner in which the market is not going down and we are booking profits. We have unloaded some of our holding in the last 15 days, but that has not affected the m arket,'' Mr Damodaran said, and added that UTI was also buying in the market.

He said there was no distress sale either of the shares held by UTI or of the real estate owned by it. However, the organisation was looking at the real estate owned by it and would dispose of those properties which were not being used, provided the pric e was good. ``We will not sell real estate to meet liquidity problems,'' he asserted.

The Chairman said UTI was looking into a suggestion that it divide some of its large schemes into small lots and give them to private fund managers. He said UTI would consider transferring a scheme to someone who was willing to pay a better price and if it was beneficial to it.

UTI, Mr Damodaran said, was in the process of restructuring itself to make it cater to the ``requirements of a 21st century organisation''. ``We are ensuring that we put in place very quickly an organisation that is entirely transparent. We intend to com plete the exercise of erecting Chinese walls between each fund so that each one is independently managed,'' he said.

The Chairman denied that there was any clandestine inter-scheme transfer. The transfer was done at pre-determined prices that were in accordance with SEBI regulations.

UTI would offer income options in schemes that did not have them. It would also come out with sector-specific, client group specific schemes. There would be no guaranteed schemes in future.

Mr Damodaran said UTI would go in for skill upgradation of its personnel and perhaps go in for outside expertise in a limited manner for a short period of time. It would set up asset management companies so that each scheme had a sponsoring company, a fu nd and a management committee.

On doubts raised about the monthly income plans, the Chairman said the schemes would deliver whatever they had promised.

Pic.: The UTI Chairman, Mr M. Damodaran, at a press conference in Chennai on Monday.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh