Religare Business Leaders Fund open for subscription

Religare MF today formally announced the launch of its new fund 'Religare Business Leaders Fund' (an open ended equity scheme). The fund seeks to generate capital appreciation by investing in companies which in Religare AMC's opinion are leaders in their respective industry or industry segment. These Companies are expected to do better than others in their industry in all economic environments in terms of growth, margins and profitability.

Typically, Companies which are leaders are expected to exhibit one or more of the following attributes

1) Better Pricing Power
2) Superior Cost Structure / Efficiencies
3) Significant Sustainable Competitive Advantages
4) Better Access to Capital.

These then reflect in the Company being in Top 3 - 5 in terms of market share, having margins and growth rates better than the Industry or industry segment average.

Speaking on the occasion, Saurabh Nanavati, Chief Executive Officer, Religare Mutual Fund said, "The ability of business leaders to survive the hard times, when marginal players are taking a beating and thrive in good times makes them an attractive long term Investment proposition and this fund is recommended for all investors as core holding for their investment portfolio".

The fund will adopt a bottom up & top down approach to create a diversified portfolio of stocks aided by Religare AMC's proprietary Stock Categorisation Philosophy. The fund universe will consist of leaders across sectors. In many industries or sectors (total of 38 as per AMFI) the leaders are midcap companies. The fund will therefore invest in both the large cap and midcap space.

The fund offers both Growth and Dividend options. Units will be issued at Rs 10 per unit plus applicable load. There is no entry load charged for investments made through the SIP route. For Lumpsum purchase, the minimum application amount is Rs 5000/- and in multiples of Re 1/- thereafter. For SIP investments the minimum application amount is Rs 1000/- and in multiples of Re 1/- thereafter per month. The minimum tenure for SIP enrollment is 6 months. The fund is benchmarked to S&P CNX Nifty. The fund opened for subscription on July 10, 2009 and will close for subscription on July 31, 2009.

Added Mr. Saurabh Nanavati, CEO, Religare Mutual Fund "Post acquisition of Lotus Mutual Fund in December 2008, this is the first equity fund launch from the Religare stable. Religare Mutual Fund had acquired Lotus Mutual Fund with roughly Rs 3,500 crores in AUM - of which Rs 2,000 crores were in FMPs maturing by March 2009. As of June 2009, Religare MF is Rs 10,030 crores In average AUM and has risen rapidly in AUM rankings in the last 6 months to being in the top 15 as of June 2009. The Financial Services space and Asset Management business within that space is a key focus area for Religare Enterprises and the group is looking at growing this business rapidly through organic and inorganic opportunities. Religare Mutual Fund today has a presence in 56 cities through 60 own branches and sales staff and is aiming to further expand this reach to 100 cities in the next 9 months. In a tough operating environment, we are glad to announce that the promoters have infused an additional Rs 35 crores in equity capital on July 13, 2009, in addition to Rs 37 crore infused in December 2008. While the AMC is breaking even operationally for the last 2 months, the flew capital Will be utilized for expanding existing business operations, selling up new Infrastructure, Investing in new business opportunities and a brand-building campaign."

Speaking about the newly Introduced norms of No Entry-Loads in the MF Industry, Mr. Nanavati commented "Norms are changing globally in the financial selling place and disclosures are becoming mandatory in various parts of the world. The decision has already been taken by SEBI and we need to look ahead. Religare Mutual Fund sees itself as a manufacturer of products and will keep launching new products to complete its product suite in all Categories - Viz. equity, debt and alternative asset classes. We also firmly believe in transparency and the reason for the NFO remaining open only up to July 31, 2009 i.e for 21 days asagainst 1 month which is the industry norm, is that investors should not fool confused with the new SEBI rules of No-Load, coming in force from August 01, 2009 While an NFO opening before July 31st can actually charge the load even after August 01, 2009 as per the SEBI circular."

The Religare Enterprises stock was trading at Rs.377.90, up by Rs.8.55 or 2.31%. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.385 and low of Rs.368.

The total traded quantity was 465 compared to 2 week average of 5407.

Source : Equity Bulls

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