Date:14/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/06/14/stories/2006061404261500.htm

Back UTI MF devises overseas fund `Desh Videsh'

Nilanjan Dey

SSgA will be investment advisor for the scheme

Fund notes The fund will not be based on a particular index UTI MF to select the international equities that the fund will partly invest in

Kolkata , June 13

With overseas investment norms becoming easier for Indian asset management companies, UTI Mutual Fund is readying a proposal that may again involve State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), its strategic partner which helped it conceive two funds based on Dow Jones indices.

The proposed fund, tentatively termed `UTI Desh Videsh', will derive strength from the latest regulations governing overseas allocations by local fund houses. SSgA, which will act as the advisor in this case, will guide UTI MF to select the international equities that the fund will partly invest in.

The fund will not be based on a particular index, unlike the schemes that the UTI-SSgA combine had mooted earlier, senior UTI MF sources pointed out.

The reference here is to UTI-SSgA Global Titans 50 Index Fund and UTI-SSgA Global Navigator Fund, which were derived from the Dow Jones Global Titans 50 Index and Dow Jones Sustainability Index World respectively. The two schemes - mooted in late 2004 - did not come into being.

"SSgA will be part of the exercise", sources maintained without divulging much, when asked about the mandate that the institutional asset manager will be expected to bear.

UTI and SSgA, it may be mentioned, had announced their partnership in May 2004, following which State Street Global Advisors Asia Ltd was appointed as investment advisor. The two schemes conceived afterwards were aimed at domestic investors who wished to try out internationally-known stocks.