Mutual Funds

UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend is the Top Performer among all Infra Funds in the World over 3-year period

Posted On : 2008-03-06 10:35:49( TIMEZONE : IST )

New Delhi, 5th March 2008: UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend has been ranked No. 1 in the World and has emerged as the Top Performing Infrastructure Fund in the World over a three year period ended 2007 as per Lipper Global data.

This Fund managed by UTI Asset Management Company Limited, a leading provider of asset management services in India, is one amongst two Indian Infrastructure Funds and nine other international Infrastructure Funds (having a track record of a minimum of three years) in the World that qualified as per the Lipper Global data.

Of all the Infrastructure Funds tracked by Lipper in the World having three- year track record as of December 31, 2007, UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend has delivered the Highest Return over a period of three years ended 2007.

Details of the World Ranking as per Lipper Global Data are given below:

Period	Ranked based on	World Rank	Return %	Total No. of Infrastructure Funds Qualifying Globally	Period
Three Year	Compounded Annualised Returns	1st	63.29%	11	December 31, 2004 to December 31, 2007

UTI-Infrastructure Fund was launched in March 2004 as an open-end equity fund. The investment objective of UTI-Infrastructure Fund is to provide investors the benefits of capital appreciation and income distribution by investing in companies engaged in the sectors such as Metals, Building Materials, Oil & Gas, Power, Chemicals, Engineering, etc. The fund invests in stocks of the companies, which form the part of Infrastructure Industries. The scheme has two options viz. Dividend Option and Growth Option.

Mr. Jaideep Bhattacharya, Chief Marketing Officer, UTI AMC, said, ”UTI Infrastructure Fund has large retail participation, which has consistently benefited from the good performance of the fund. The fund enjoys the trust of over 3 lakh investors and has a corpus size of Rs.1, 608 crore.”

Mr. Sanjay Dongre, fund manager of UTI-Infrastructure Fund, added, "The Fund’s performance is linked to the overall economic growth of the country as the sectors in which the fund invests are directly linked to the GDP growth of India.“

Mr. Sumit Mehra, Business Manager, India, Lipper, a Reuters Company said, “Infrastructure was one of the dominant themes of 2007, because of which the infrastructure funds within India outperformed the general market and were also able to beat their global peers in terms of performance during the year. With the tremendous amount of money being raised on the Indian Infrastructure story, and the possibility of softening of interest rates within India, the infrastructure theme is expected to continue to garner interest, albeit one can't argue with the fact that valuations are also quite rich within this space now. The Union Budget 2008 too talks about Government focus on Infrastructure with Urban Infrastructure spending to rise to 68.7 billion rupees and Rural Infrastructure spending will be 140 billion rupees, resulting in more business for companies related to this sector."

Ranking Methodology & Disclaimer

UTI Infrastructure Fund-Dividend has secured the first rank (three-year compounded annualised return of 63.29 % in INR as on December 31, 2007) and emerged as the top performing infrastructure fund in the world over 3-year period (December 31, 2004 to December 31, 2007) ended 2007, as per Lipper global data.

“The customized report, highlighting the top performing Infrastructure funds in the world during the year 2007, is based on the study of all funds flagged as “Infrastructure Funds ” as per Lipper global fund data, having a minimum track record of at least 3-years as of December 2007 end. In total, 11 Infrastructure funds (primary) qualified for the study for 3-year period. Ranking is based on 3-year annual compounded returns, denominated in INR for the period ended December 31, 2007.”

The methodology does not take into account the entry and exit loads levied by the scheme. The ranking is neither a certificate nor any guarantee of performance and is no indication of the performance that can be expected from the scheme in future.

Data source: Lipper, a Reuters Company (www.lipperweb.com)