Rajlakshmi petition dismissed

S. Vaidya Nathan

THE Nagpur Bench of the Mumbai High Court has dismissed the writ petition filed by four investors challenging the decision of the Unit Trust of India to terminate prematurely the close-end scheme, Rajlakshmi Unit Scheme 1992, on September 30.

The judges held that the UTI's decision to terminate the scheme was not mala fide, and observed that the move was made in the interests of investors. However, based on an appeal by four Haryana girls, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a stay on the UTI move.

Rights options: Tata Mutual Fund has offered three options to investors in the proposed rights offer under the Tata Balanced Fund. Investors can either subscribe to the rights at Rs 10 per unit, or renounce it, or be compensated for the difference between the cum-rights and ex-rights NAVs. The compensation would be by way of additional units. The third option is to ensure that no investor suffers depreciation in the value of the investment due to the difference between the cum-rights and ex-rights NAVs of the Tata Balanced Fund. But in an announcement at the end of the week, Tata MF has decided to defer the rights offer for the present.

Chola Gilt dividend: Cholamandalam Cazenove Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 7 paise per unit (0.70 per cent) for Rs 10 for Chola Gilt (Savings Plan Dividend Option). The fund earlier declared dividends of 1.20 per cent, 0.60 per cent and 0.60 per cent in June, July and August respectively. The dividends are tax-free in the hands of investors, though a part of their funds went to paying the dividend tax. The dividend is applicable for investors in the Chola Gilt fund as of September 25.

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Sun F&C dividend: Sun F&C Mutual Fund has announced a dividend of 2.80 per cent (Rs 0.28 per unit on face value of Rs 10) for the Sun F&C Money Value Fund _ Bond Option (Dividend Plan). The dividend would be paid to investors whose names appear on the register of unitholders as of September 26 and within 24 days from the record date. The NAV will be ex-dividend from September 27.

MIP extended: Kothari Pioneer Mutual Fund extended the initial offering period of its Monthly Income Plan to September 28. The MIP is an open-end income fund with a moderate exposure of 10 per cent to equities. The mutual fund has assets worth Rs 2,500 crore under management.

Canstar payment: Canara Bank has indicated that its subsidiary, Canbank Mutual Fund, would pay the promised price on its Canstar scheme. The mutual fund will meet the investors needs as it is sufficiently equipped and as far as the payment to the bank, it is a matter between the fund and the bank, which would not be made public.

At present, the fund has 40,000 investors; 96.23 per cent of the units are held by Canara Bank, and the rest by retail investors. A couple of years ago, the bank stepped in to purchase the units at the then assured price of Rs 23 per unit. Canstar was launched as a 10-year close-end fund in 1990, with promises of price at the time of repurchase and eventual redemption. The fund raised a corpus of Rs 790 crores, and its current corpus is Rs 585 crores.

Kothari Pioneer Tech Push: Kothari Pioneer Mutual Fund has announced a facility by which NAVs can be accessed anytime and anywhere through WAP mobile phones by logging on to www.kotharipioneer.com. The fund has also launched a service by which investors can interact online with the customer service staff using the `Talk to us' section on the website.

JM dividend schedule: JM Mutual Fund has announced that it will consider declaring weekly NAVs in the JM High Liquidity Fund (Dividend Plan) on all Saturdays starting from September 23. A schedule of Saturdays till March 31 has been announced. The fund has indicated that it would consider declaring a monthly dividend in the JM Balanced Fund (Dividend Option) on the 23rd of each month, till March 2001.

JM record date: The fund had also fixed September 23 as the record date for dividend payment under the Dividend Plan of JM Liquid Fund and JM G-Sec Fund (Short-Term Plan and Regular Plan).

HDFC mobilisation: HDFC Mutual Fund has mobilised Rs 654 crore under its three schemes in the initial offering period which closed on August 10, 2000. The income scheme had Rs 397 crore, the growth scheme Rs 136 crore and the balanced scheme, Rs 121 crore. The schemes are now available for sale and repurchase on an ongoing basis.

US-64: From September 1, the UTI will issue membership advice in place of unit certificates to facilitate issuance of duplicate in case of loss/theft, etc., for its flagship fund US-64. Unitholders will continue to enjoy all benefits as hitherto. Investors who want to pledge/assign or sell their holdings through a stock exchange may approach the UTI for the issue of unit certificates in place of the membership advice.

Delisting of US-95: The UTI has delisted Unit Scheme-95 (US-95) from the from NSE (Wholesale Debt Segment) with effect from August 1.

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US-64 prices: The Unit Trust of India has fixed the sale price and repurchase price for US-64 at Rs 13.80 per unit and Rs 13.50 per unit respectively for September. These prices represent a 15 paise rise over the August prices.