NFO Nest

The first eight months of 2007 (January to August) saw a total of 54 NFOs, a majority of them open ended, garnering Rs 15,409 crore, whereas in the same period last year, the fund houses collected nearly Rs 27,000 crore. Infrastructure, mid-cap and offshore investments have been the main theme of funds launched this year. DSP Merrill Lynch and Reliance Mutual Fund launched the largest number of funds this year - seven each. They are conspicuous by their absence in the September and October 2007 NFO Nest.

The following funds find their place in the NFO nest in October, 2007.

Lotus India Infrastructure Fund # Opens: 25 Sept, 2007 - Closes: 24 Oct, 2007

A three-year close ended equity fund, it would automatically be converted into an open ended fund after the expiry of three years from the date of allotment. Between 65 to 100% of the portfolio allocation will be in equity and equity-linked instruments of companies engaged in infrastructure sector selected by adopting the bottom up approach. Debt securities and money market instrument will comprise of 0 to 35% of the portfolio.

HDFC Arbitrage Fund # Opens: 28 Sept, 2007 - Closes: 15 Oct, 2007

HDFC Arbitrage Fund is an open-ended equity fund with the investment objective of generating income by investing predominantly in arbitrage opportunities between cash and derivative market and arbitrage opportunities within the derivative segment and by deployment of surplus cash in debt securities and money market instruments. There are nearly a dozen arbitrage funds at present delivering a return of 8 to 10 percent per annum.

HSBC Flexi Debt Fund # Opens: 3 Oct , 2007 Closed :3 Oct , 2007

HSBC Flexi Debt Fund is an open-ended debt scheme. The scheme has regular and institutional plans. For regular plan minimum subscription amount is Rs.10000 and for institutional plan minimum subscription is Rs. 50 lakhs. The investment objective of the scheme is to deliver returns in the form of interest income and capital gains, along with high liquidity, commensurate with the current view on the markets and the interest rate cycle, through active investment in debt and money market instruments.

UTI Energy Fund

To enable the investors to capture the growth potential of a broad based energy sector, UTI Mutual Fund is widening the investment objective of its existing UTI-GSF-Petro and renaming the Fund to UTI Energy Fund. The new offer is an open ended equity scheme. The investment objective of UTI-GSF-Petro was to invest in petro sector companies which constitute only a part of the overall energy sector. The investment objective of UTI Energy Fund will cover the entire energy sector to capitalize on the emerging opportunities across the sector. In addition to investing in stocks in the oil & gas sector covering companies engaged in drilling, exploration, refining of crude oil and distribution, UTI Energy Fund will also invest in power generation companies (power generation, transmission, distribution and power trading & companies involved in consulting and financing these businesses), energy storage and distribution companies and equipment manufacturers for the energy sector.

Sahara R.E.A.L. Fund # Opens: 5 Oct , 2007 Closes: 2 Nov , 2007

Sahara R.E.A.L. Fund is a close-ended equity fund with an automatic conversion into an open-ended fund upon expiry of 36 months from the date of allotment. The investment objective is to provide long term capital gains by investing predominantly (at least 90%) in equity/equity related instrument of companies in Retailing, Entertainment & Media, Auto & auto ancillaries and Logistics Sector in order to capitalize on strong growth potential or potential to earn, that may emerge in future. A ceiling of 50% of the total investible corpus would be imposed per sector in order to avoid concentration of investment.

The spate of FMPs in the past months are gradually on the decline with debt-oriented interval schemes taking over the reigns. ICICI Prudential and ING Mutual Fund have come up with debt interval schemes this month.

UTI - India International Fund, JM Multi Strategy Fund, Tata Banking Exchange Traded Fund, Birla Sunlife Special Situations Fund, HSBC Small Cap Fund, Kotak Focussed Sector Scheme and DSPML Natural Resources and New Energy Fund are expected to be launched in the coming months.