Birla Sun Life introduces International Equity Fund

NI Wire

Mumbai

Wed, 19 Sep 2007: 

Sep 19: Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company Ltd has introduced a new open-ended diversified equity fund for the Indian customers, ‘Birla Sun Life International Equity Fund’ on September 17 to get invest their money rectly on the international market.

The New Fund Offer, NFO has opened on the same day of introducing day while closes on October 17. This NFO has two plans, Plan A and Plan B. Under Plan A, the asset allocation would be 90-100 per cent in international equities across the world market and 0-10 per cent in fixed income securities would be invested in diversified portfolio of international stocks from across the world, while Plan B has a blend of domestic stocks and international stocks in which 65-75 per cent of asset would be invested in Indian equities, 25-35 per cent in international equities and 0-10 per cent in fixed income securities, officially announced.

Birla Sun Life has tried to generate long-term capital growth through this new equity, as it would get the pros and cons of both the international market and the domestic market.

"Investments will be recommended by Standard & Poor Investment Advisory Services LLC (SPIAS),” informed Mukul Gupta, the Chief Executive Officer of Birla Sun Life to the media. SPIAS would design a model portfolio using stocks ranked under Standard & Poor's Stock Appreciation Ranking System (STARS).

“The USP is the global nature of the fund that does not focus on any single geography or region but allows investors to own some of the well-established companies in the world,” said Mukul.

''Our model is based on rigorous equity research done by an independent financial services organisation, in this case its done on standard and poor's…..This enable us to leverage the experience of standard and poor's”, added Gupta.

Debt component limit would be same for both plans, while the benchmark for plan A would be S&P Global 1200, the benchmark for Plan B would be customised by using BSE 200 to the extent of 65 per cent of the portfolio and S&P Global 1200 to the extent of 35 per cent.