Reliance MF, JP Morgan MF and Motilal Oswal MF have filed draft offer documents with SEBI to launch international funds. These offers will once again test the appetite for international funds as the response so far has not been encouraging.
Mumbai: Three mutual fund houses plan to raise money from domestic investors to invest in securities overseas. Reliance Mutual Fund has filed a draft offer document with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) seeking to invest in Indonesia to gain from the sustained economic recovery in the East Asian country.
JP Morgan has filed a draft for offering an open-ended fund called ASEAN Equity Off-shore Fund for investments in ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations). ASEAN countries include Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia, Brunei, Laos and Myanmar. This fund will be benchmarked against MSCI South East Asia Index.
Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund has decided to explore investment opportunities in US. It proposes to launch an open-ended exchange traded fund called MOSt Shares NASDAQ-100 ETF. This fund will have an exposure to shares forming part of NASDAQ 100 index and will be benchmarked against NASDAQ-100 Index.
Motilal Oswal’s international fund will give Indian investors a chance to take exposure to American blue chips like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, CA Inc, Yahoo, eBay. NASDAQ 100 index does not contain securities of financial companies.
Reliance MF is planning to launch the fund just when Moody’s has placed Indonesia’s sovereign credit rating on review for a possible upgrade. Reliance’s Indonesian fund will be benchmarked against Morgan Stanley Capital International’s (MSCI) Indonesia index.
Response of Indian investors to international funds has not been encouraging so far. Schemes investing overseas have a total of Rs 3,012 crore of assets under management (AUM) at the end of October 2010.
